When not at home.....MDS

As I mentioned the other day - I'm in Calgary with my husband, who is attending meetings.  I got some shopping done yesterday, but I also worked on a challenge using My Digital Studio; that's what I'm sharing today.

The above layout is using a photo for colour inspiration from Our Creative Corner.  The colours were blues, oranges and a bit of brown.  I chose to use a couple of pictures of Elliot taken a couple of months ago when he was beginning to be able to hold on to things.  This bunny was so soft and the perfect size for him to seize onto.  Of course "playing" really translates into "chewing".

Today's challenge over at The Paper Players was using polka dots.  Ironically, I  used polka dots on the sketch I did yesterday, but I decided to do a second layout using polka dots specifically for this challenge. I took the sketch from Love the Journey - a blog I stumbled upon today.  It was a pleasant surprise to find out that the owner of the blog - Lee Anne - is an Albertan also.  It's a small world!  I took her sketch quite literally because I liked how her hexagons were placed.

Well, enough of being inside....I think I'll go take a walk before dinner.  Hope you are enjoying your long weekend.  Thanks for taking time to stop by.

Joan

Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy

I'm not sure how happy these fellows are about the temperatures right now - but they're happy about coming out to play today.

I've used the Mojo Monday sketch today - turned on it's side and the colours are from Our Creative Corner....light pink, light blue, red and white.

I attached the small strip of Pretty in Pink to the end of a Bashful Blue piece and then put it through the Big Shot with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder.  The "seam" of the two pieces of cardstock is covered with a piece of Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon.

Silver Glimmer Paper was used for the small strip above the snowmen and for the large and small scallops highlighting the snowflake.  I added Dazzling Details to the snowmen's hats and a bit of Crystal Effects to their buttons.

Well, let me tell ya - our Christmas Concert should be spectacular on Wednesday if today's 1st run through was any indication.  I'm so glad we can do it again tomorrow before it's "for real".  I know you don't want a perfect practice before a performance - but seriously!  I'm really not worried though - I know everything will be wonderful in the end!

Hope the beginning of your week has been good - thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.
Joan

Imagine Paris Possibilities

 

Oh I love this new Mocha Morning Specialty paper - it's so rich!  Of course bit of velvet swirled on anything makes it rich.  I've used the Sketch from Our Creative Corner today.

I received a warm fuzzy from my daughter this morning....she saw the card I made yesterday - with the cupcake.  She said, "Oh, someone has to have a birthday soon 'cause this card is so pretty."  It made me feel good after the fuss I had with it yesterday.

Spent a bit more time stamping today - I made up some sticky-note packages with matching pens to stock up on Hostess/Door Prize stuff.

I copied one that my friend, Amy, made a number of years ago for our staff at school with our Mascot on it.  There are large magnets on the back so it can stick on the fridge.  The pens have a piece of DSP inside.  Everything is quick, easy, and I'm not sure why I've waited so long to put them together.  I've had the supplies for ages!

That's how it works sometimes though - Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for taking time to stop by.
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

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

Happy Easter Flowers

Happy Easter to all - I hope you are having a wonderful day with your family.

Today I'm sharing a card I created yesterday for Our Creative Corner's challenge to make an easel card. I haven't made one of these for a while - I really like them.....here is the tutorial from Splitcoast by Beate Johns.

Again - Enjoy your Easter Holiday - He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!!!!!
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

Grrrreat Stars....

The grizzly bear decided to come out for the Mojo Monday Challenge this week.....before he goes into hibernation! I did it in conjunction with the colour challenge over at Our Creative Corner from Friday - Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.
I always wonder what this little guy is thinking!
I hope you're having a wonderful beginning to your week. Our weather is back to the summer temperatures again - briefly. I do love all the colours!
Ta ta for now! Thanks for stopping by! Joan

Daffodils

Well, this poor daffodil plant certainly has been distressed. I was trying a new technique - which was featured by Danielle Kennedy on the Flourishes Newsletter February 14. It was a distressing technique which I had trouble doing it because my SU markers would run whenever I added water. It was a good thing that I stamped the image 3 times before beginning. What I eventually ended up doing was distressing the stamped image before colouring it....I had even let it dry for a couple of days and the ink still ran. So - the technique tutorial by Danielle is here...her end result is beautiful!!!

Challenges for this Card.....
SCS Limited Supply Challenge - Ribbon and Trim
Our Creative Corner - Try a New Technique
Saturday Spotlight - "Messy" - distressed paper
SCS Clean & Simple - Wishing For Spring
Thanks for stopping by to visit.....

Success!!!!

Our Creative Corner has challenged people this week to use something that they purchased a while ago, but haven't used yet. I bought this wonderful "Chairs for You" set from Flourishes almost a year ago. They got buried and then one day I saw a card someone had made where they used DSP for the upholstery of the chair - that clicked in my head, but I still didn't pull out the set. So - today I did. I used Bella Bleu paper for the entire card - I just love it! The sketch is from Sweet Stop Sketch.
The flowers are from Mulberry Street. I don't have much of this sort of thing in my house - but I did buy these on an outing not too long ago. The middle flower is actually white, but I took my SU water colour crayons and Aqua Painter and touched it up with Creamy Carmel so it wasn't so stark against the Vanilla/Kraft base.

My second card is for yesterday's Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS....HamiltonGal. I picked Laurie's card - here - as my inspiration. I changed the colours and used DSP which was not on the original card. I hadn't used my "Build-a-Brad"s for ever so long that I figured they would work well on this card.

And finally - I know it's not that big a deal to the world - but I FINALLY finished my 2000 piece candy cane puzzle today. My husband bought it for me about 4 years ago, and though I am a professed puzzaholic, I balked at this one. I just
couldn't get my head around it. I was told I wouldn't get any more puzzles unless I finished it - that didn't even get me started until this year. I began about a week or two before Christmas - and put the last piece in today. Now I just have to decide which puzzle to do next - until I buy a new one!!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day - and that you're enjoying watching the Olympics - if it is something you do.

Joan

Sing to the Lord

I am so excited that I can start sharing some of the cards I've been creating on the Design Team with digital images from Sugar Creek Hollow.

Any time I see a music themed stamp I want to have it because I give out so many cards as thanks for parents who help at school....or my musical friends. I really liked this image also because of the tiny little flowers that are surrounding the violin.

Our Creative Corner is having a Music Card Challenge this week, so this one fits into that category just fine.

I'm sorry that the words are so small for you in the picture - I'm still learning about how to manipulate digital images. I am having an extreme amount of fun being on this Design Team!!!

Digital images are now available for purchase at the store. You may pre-buy prior to our Grand Opening. Simply click on "New Releases" to go enter the store on our website. I have a button to pop your over there along my sidebar.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday!!!

Snowy Bear

Well.....we've moved away from hearts and pinks and moved back to snow. That's okay - it's still the last week of January.

This little bear comes as a freebie this past week over at Delightful Inspiration. I really liked her - sitting waiting to go skating with her friends; watching the snow float down.

The sketch I used, from Our Creative Corner (shown below), has a heart as the central feature - but I made my theme the little bear and "strategically" positioned the snowflakes in a heart-ish shape.







The colours are from Colour Throwdown
I may just use these colours again this week because I like them together and the only Celery I used in this card was the ribbon coming down.

I added Dazzling Diamonds to the little snowflakes in the image and for the snow she is sitting on. I just love how the camera catches the sparkle!

I hope you are having a sparkling day - 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,

From Snow to Spring

Today's Featured Stamper of SCS was Ann from ardodd - what a wonderful gallery she has - check it out! I selected the pumpkin card to case because the beautiful black "lace" caught my eye. I decided to use my Lattice die again - which made me think of a garden trellis and got me using "Garden from the Heart" for the first time. It's one of the great new sets in the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalogue.
I'm also using this card for the Clean and Simple challenge over at Our Creative Corner.

Although I would love to be in my garden - we have only started the year - and that means
January snow.....which is also good. I cased this layout from someone's blog and I am extremely sorry to say that I don't remember who it was. I just loved the "hill" of snow and the different sized letters. I'm hoping to use this layout for a scrapbook class later this month.

So, school starts again tomorrow and I'm hoping I'll be able to stay in my stamping room in the afternoons.....I'm feeling very optimistic! Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday -

Gray Banana Cake

Here is the thumbnail of today's sketch challenge. I also incorporated some doodling stamps for the challenge over at Our Creative Corner from this past week.

On the gray triangle piece I tried using my Barely Banana Craft ink - I have had the box of Soft Subtle craft inks for a while - hadn't opened the pad so it took a while to juice it up. I used the word window punch to "highlight" the saying. It's actually a white piece stamped and punched and put on top of the yellow. I haven't used the Doodle This set for a while......it was fun.

The sky is clear, the sun is shining bright and the birds are singing - it's not warm, but ya can't have it all at once.....ha ha - you can't have your cake and eat it too!

Thanks for dropping by!
JOAN

Bella Bleu

Good Morning...

The thumb nail shows the sketch challenge this week over at Our Creative Corner. I thought it was very fancy looking so decided to use the fancy Bella Bleu paper....I am loving this paper!

Thanks for stopping by - Hope you have a great day. JOAN

New Year - New Cards

Wow, the cakes for today's Inspiration Challenge are ABSOLUTELY incredible! You wouldn't want to eat them they're so intricate! Not, the one I picked for my first card - but you've got to check out the website - Cake Nouveau - to at least look at them!!! Last week's challenge over at Our Creative Corner was to use something clear - thus the velum on this card - not truely clear - but sort of.















This second card is for this past week's Sketch Challenge, Colour Challenge (So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, and Bravo Burgundy) and the Creative Corner Challenge - clear Buttons. I used rub-ons on the buttons, as well as on the main saffron piece.

I'm heading to school to get things set in place - it will be interesting to see what the classroom is like after not being in it for three months. Then - I'm going to do THIS weeks' challenge at Our Creative corner which is a sketch challenge.

Have a great day and stay warm. JOAN

Pink Scallops

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge was from maXimio inc. and I chose the pink pillow shown here. I rarely ever use pink so that added to the challenge. I also used the Colour Throwdown which was Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive. By adding the "Lovey Dovey" sentiment I also fit into the challenge over at Our Creative Corner.

I may not be posting very regularily after today since I'll be having a house full of people for Christmas. I hope everyone has a blessed time with their
family and friends in celebrating the Christmas season.

God Bless - JOAN

Thinking of a Wonderful Friend

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge was from Marimekko Petrooli Umbrellas - wow - what fun!!!!! I chose the one shown on the side.
I also used the sketch challenge from LAST WEEK's challenge at Our Creative Corner. (They now have a colour challenge up - so I'll have to work on that next.) I'm loving the new scallop punch!!!! Gone are the days of using the corner rounder to create scallops - wooohooo!!!
I added some non-SU bobbles on the bottom set of flowers. They are tinted pink, but you really can't tell in the photo. Oh well.
I decided this afternoon, that I had better give my Big Shot a try. What fun too!!!!!! I sponged the edges of the flowers and then used my gel pen to add the white dots. (I bought a couple of new ones so I'm not using white-out anymore!!!) At convention we saw how we could remove the rhinestones from the "brad" so I did that for the centres of the flowers.
The colours for this card are from over at Colour Throw Down (Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue and Apricot Appeal) - my apricot is a bit washed out in this photo. I think I must create a little photo corner for myself so that things turn out truer to life.

I'm off to do a bit more music planning. The count down is on, but the days are still passing relatively slowly - Yipeee!!!!
Thanks for stopping by,

Wonderful Butterflies

Yesterday's Featured Stamper was Susiestampalot.....and goodness gracious did she have a lot
of fantastic cards to choose from to case. I chose the pink and black card of
Susan's because of the butterfly wings coming out from the paper. While I was creating the card though, I was also keeping in mind the Colour Throw Down (Barely Banana, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Sky - the challenge called for Cool Caribean, but I don't have any of that left.). It also meets criteria for Our Creative Corner's dry embossing and today's "Dare to Get Dirty" challenge at Splitcoast. Laurie was challenging us to use vellum. I like working with vellum....I just don't do it enough. The butterflies are velum with beads attached as their bodies.

Great day to stamp in the basement....it's so hot outside. Have a pleasant evening. JOAN