Sock Monkeys and Shy Bears

Happy Tuesday...
I looked at my daytimer this afternoon to write some new events in - and realized once again how fast time passes....or approaches. Spring break is almost here for northern Alberta, Easter follows directly after, then I have a Music Convention at the end of April, head to Calgary on the May long weekend.....and then school will be done - Yikes!!!! (And then it starts all over again - teaching really can be a weird profession!)
Any-whoooo
Sock monkey came out to play today for a couple of challenges...
Mojo Monday Sketch is used....didn't really mean it to look like the eggs were falling into her basket from the sky - but hey - whatever works!
365 Cards used the image of beautifully decorated Easter eggs in baskets shown here. Sock Monkey needs a bit more practice with colouring her eggs...but
she's happy!
Try a New Technique at Splitcoast today was to create your own Designer Series Paper.... I spritzed the top piece and the matt behind Sock Monkey with the colours from the printed DSP - Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and So Saffron.

Squigglefly wanted you to have something shiny on your card - which are the rhinestones. However.....I created the second card below, with Shy Bear specifically for this.
I could swear I heard a robin singing when I got out of the car at school this morning.....you know how you notice a song that you haven't heard for a while? It's a thing with me - I always stop in my tracks to listen to whichever bird is singing at the moment.
For the "Let it Shine" challenge at Squigglefly this week I added a bit of Crystal Effects to each of the leaves because they're so fresh and new on the tree. I also added the bling at the bottom .
The sketch for this card is from 365 Cards.

Well...I'm off to bed because I need to be rested, clear headed and patient tomorrow when taking the hand chime and hand bell groups to the Music Festival here in town. Gotta wonder about the fact that the festival is at the same time as report cards....yikes - talk about stress.
Ah well....it makes us strong!
Thank you so much for dropping by!!!! Hope you are having a totally terrific Tuesday!

Lucky Sundaes

Good Monday Morning:
Wouldn't ya just love to start the day with a thick chocolate sundae!!!! This image comes from Sugar Creek Hollow. You can find it in the "Food" section in the Quick Find Digi's by Type. More new images will be available April 1 - so mark your calendars. You're not going to want to miss them!!

For my card I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers .(Shown in the thumbnail below). I printed the image off twice - once one white paper and again on Vanilla. I touched the glass up with a bit of grey to give it a bit of dimension and then covered it with Crystal Effects to slick it up. (That was the challenge from over at Saturday Spotlight this week) When the Crystal Effects was just a bit dry - I started playing around with it to try to give
it a bit more texture to look like those old fashioned sundae glasses. The cherry has a dew drop on top of it to give it a bit of dimension too....along with the ice cream sticking out from the page with dimensionals.



The Corrosive Challenge this week was to create a card with some Luck on
it. I thought myself "lucky" when I noticed that the Tres Chic stamp has
the word Lucky included. Our Creative Corner's challenge this week was to create a card with yellow, green, brown and pink and I matched that with the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge shown below.
I guess I was lucky twice in creating this card because when I went looking for the finishing touch for the card I found that the L word in Define Yourself stamp set was Lucky!

To create the shamrocks I crumpled up a piece of Old Olive paper, and then distressed it more by rubbing the stamp pad over the rough spots.....then I put it into the Heart to Heart punch. Not an easy feat when the paper is no longer flat and crisp!

So that's it for today. I hope you have a wonderful day and a little bit of luck falls into your path.

Thanks for stopping by

Negatives and Florals

Saturday was a busy stamping day!

I had this first image printed for quite a while and it finally decided to be created into a card. The cross image is one from Sugar Creek Hollow. I was playing around with it on "My Digital Studio" a couple of weeks ago. I found a negative button and ended up with this image - the cross is originally black. To brighten up the dark background I covered it with VersaMark ink and added clear embossing powder. White craft ink was used to create the swirls around the cross and when I used the heat gun to "dry" the ink....it of course became embedded in the clear embossing.
The edges were torn and then I added gold embossing.
The sketch is from "The Sweet Stop" and is shown in the thumbnail.
I'm also using it for the 365 Cards challenge for day #12 which was to use more than 20 circles on your card coming from two different sources.

My second card was created for the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoast. The website was "Warm Biscuits" which is a children's bedding company. There was a section for gifts for Moms and I selected a little daily Journal.
I used only In Colours - so my green isn't quite as vibrant as on the little booklet. I tried to make a fancy flower - but it truly ended up being more like a piece of hard leather than a flower. I had stamped it, rolled up the edges and then I wet the three pieces down in hopes of being able to split the petals - nope....just hard and crunchy. Oh well.

I'm going to have to do some school work Sunday afternoon - I have a number of prolific writers in my language arts class who are finished all their little poem assignments and ready to start preparing them for a little booklet they'll take home. Hey - I just thought - maybe they could stamp the cover. Duh.....never thought of that. I don't often want to share my stamps with children - maybe I should get over that!!!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Stamping Saturday!

When I started creating this card this morning I had two different challenges in mind...
1) Create a scene with DSP
2) Create some dimension by popping up part of the images that are used in the card.

Well, I accomplished both those things using the Sweet Pea and Welcome Neighbor DSP. What I didn't realize until I was done, is that both challenges came from 365 Cards. Too Funny. I'm off to do a couple of chores and then I'm heading back to my stamping room.

Hope you're having a fantastic Saturday so far....

Caviar Trio....

Saturday Salutations....
Okay - I know the title for this post is a bit odd....but it goes with the challenge which comes from CCEE and the picture of caviar shown at the bottom of this post. I was totally unsure of what I would do with this challenge but caught onto the idea from some of the blogs I read.

So...I took the colours from the three different jars of caviar, and the number 3 worked well with the sketch from Our Creative Corner which had the three bands coming into the middle of the card. I omitted the ribbon across the middle only because I didn't want to cut my "Totally Cool" girl off at the knees.

I used the "Things I Love" stamp set which includes "new shoes" in banana, "chocolate" in Dusty Durango and the black strip has "shopping".
I didn't want to add a different colour into the mix (beyond
the jeans which go with the little package label in the picture) so the present that she is holding was done in irredescent ice which I haven't used in so so long and is glittery in real life.

I'm posting this late Friday night....so I expect that I will be making another Saturday post during the day. In fact I already have some papers out on my table ready to be worked together. I am now going to settle into watching "Where the Wild Things Are" with my 18 year old daughter. Gotta love it when puberty is somwhat over and done with and you can be friends again!!!
Thanks for stopping by - Joan

Button Bunny

Happy Friday!!!!!!
All I have to do is get through the weekend, take some of my students to the Music Festival on Tuesday and I will be a happy camper.....oh, but there are still report cards and interviews.....but every Friday is a good Friday!!!

Okay - sorry - on to the card. This fabulous little bunny is from Sugar Creek Hollow as an Easter Digi Special. He is a trio along with the little chick I used the other day and a giant carrot.
The sketch comes from the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. I had fun folding the ribbon at the bottom of the card and used buttons along the side instead of stitching since our focus for Fabulous Friday is buttons.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a fantastic Friday!!

Trees and Animals

Well, I found a new challenge blog that gives a different challenge everyday. I know that there are probably lots of them out there - I just haven't ventured across them yet.
The challenge for 365 Cards for Tuesday was to be inspired by the song "It's a Wondeful World" by Louis Armstrong. So I picked the phrases about "trees of green", "skies of blue and clouds of white". I have a red flower in the corner, but it isn't a red rose. Such a wonderful song - and I love Louis' voice! If I could I would have put a trumpet on the card - just 'cause! the sketch comes from yesterday's Splitcoast sketch.







The second card uses this weeks sketch from over at CPS-Card Positioning
Systems. The sketch sort of reminded me of the Olympic rings. The colours are from 365 Cards - Orange, Purple and Blue. I spritzed the colours onto the white cardstock and then kept the card fairly simple. I forget to use these cute little animals so decided that I could use them for a children's birthday card.




The sky was a beautiful blue this morning and the snow continues to melt. I'm not sure that we're out of the winter woods yet - but spring is definitely in the air.

Have a wonderful day in your neck of the woods and thanks for dropping by!

Vintage flowers and toys...

I know it will be quite a while still before we see any sort of plant life in the Edmonton area - but it's nice to anticipate.

I've used the Mojo Monday Sketch for this card along with the Technique Challenge of Splitcoast - which was Very Vintage; and the colours from Cards and Things - Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss and Bordering Blue.
You can't see it very well in the picture, but the flowers are
done on a piece of water colour paper and I used both the blender pen and aqua painter to create the piece. I am NOT a painter by any means - but I'm pleased with how this turned out.
I also learned that it is easier to distress paper when crumpling it up if you wet it with water first - doesn't hurt the hands as much either.

My second card uses an image from Squigglefly for their challenge this week which was to create a scene on your card. I used the sketch from "Lord Have Mercy" and the colours are from this weeks Colour Challenge on Splitcoast. I added a few extra colours for the colouring - but the rest hold true.

We're heading into hump day - the report cards are done and the mornings are brighter. All is
well - I love not having to walk around in the
dark first thing in the morning! I hope your day is also full of light!

Thanks for stopping by,

Spring is in the Air

Well....spring is in the air - the snow is melting, birds are singing and I actually heard and saw two geese fly overhead the other day. Gotta trust those birds.
And birds - oh my I love this little chick from Sugar Creek Hollow. She has such cute "googly" feet. I just have no other word for those wonderful little toes. She is part of an Easter Digi Special over at Sugar Creek Hollow! The Proverb at the bottom of the card is in the "Freebie" section of the website.

I've used the sketch put out by Corrosive Challenge this week. It gave me the opportunity to use a piece of designer paper that was bright and "loud" and I don't think I'd use this side of the paper ordinarily. But broken into strips it works well.











My second card is for the Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoast Sunday. The featured stamper was Vera and this is the card I copied. I changed the position of the card and the colours - but what caught my eye the most about Vera's card was the same striped paper going in different directions on top of each other. I thought it was pretty neat.

Well, I'm getting all tense getting my hand chime group ready for Music Festival next week. My husband is getting his bands ready for competition too. We're very happily married - and knew we were both in Education when we met - but two music teachers in the same household at certain times of the year - IS NUTS!!!!! But this too passes and we all move on to funner (?) things.

Hope all is relaxing and warmer in your area of the world - thanks for stopping by -

Girly Turtles

Good Monday Morning...
It was a busy weekend, going down to Calgary Friday night and back again Saturday afternoon. I know people make the round trip all in one day - too much driving at once for me. It was fun though!
So, yesterday I was able to stamp and get some challenges completed. I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever colour this turtle with appropriate colours! I created the card for the Inspiration Challenge on SCS from Saturday. The website was Ginko Papers and I chose this greeting card with the floral turtle on it. I've also used the sketch from over at Our Creative Corner. I've used the flowers instead of the scallops along the bottom.

Creating a "girly" card was the challenge over at Stamp Something this week. I was happy to be able to pull out my old retired "Totally Cool" set and use this girl again. I selected a piece of Sweet Pea Paper and used the Circle Scissor Plus to cut a circle to fit the square. I cut out one of the left-over butterflies and added it to the largest butterfly from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit die. I ran out
of thin sticky strip so I had to use a wide band to put the orange microbeads onto. The sketch I used for this card comes from Friday Sketchers.

Well, I'd better get off to work - I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by!
Joan

Thankful Simplicity

Good Sunday Morning....

Boy this card took a while to fall into place. I was using the sketch from Midnight Madness this past week and I tried to spruce it up - but I couldn't find anything in my stash of stuff to add that would flow from one corner to the other - so I opted for the simpler version and added the bit of ribbon and hardware in the corner. I've used the Colour Throw Down for this card too.







The second card today is quite clean and simple too. The sketch comes from the Card Positioning Systems and the colours are from the Cards and Things Challenge Blog. I'm not quite sure how I happened across that blog - but I know I was looking for colours to use - I hadn't used the In Colours in a while - so it was good....Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede.

I'll be working on report cards today - or napping - hopefully I'll do both!!!!!
Thanks for stopping by

Playing with Frogs

The Way's to Use it Challenge at Splitcoast this past week was to create a card about playing - sports, games, puzzles. I took the opportunity to use my "games" DP again and used the sketch challenge from Our Creative Corner.
I scrounged through my little boxes of extra letters and was able to find a variety of black letters to spell out the greeting. Then - I was bad - and stole a poker chip from my son's stash.....which he hasn't used in way over a year - so I figured it was free game (ha ha).









The Splitcoast Colour Challenge this week was Crushed Curry, Always Artichoke and Basic Gray. Honestly, when I gathered my scraps, just to see what they looked like , I began longing for brighter colours. However, I really like how this card turned out. The image is from Penny Black - one of the frogs is playing a guitar so I had to buy the set.
I've used the sketch from over at "Lord Have Mercy" from
last Tuesday.

Well.....I hope you're day is going well. Thanks for dropping by!