Let Us Rejoice!

Hello friends! Jane is hosting this week's member challenge on the CardSwaps forum at CardMaker magazine's website. Her challenge this week was to make a round card. I made mine a tent card and used one of my favorite Bible verses. The color is a bit off in the photo. The butterfly looks green, but it is actually cream color like the flowers. The pearls on the butterfly were originally white. I colored them with Latte Alcohol Ink. The sentiment is computer generated and the flowers (Inkadinkado) were stamped with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The embossing folder used was Tropical Paisley by Sizzix and the butterfly die/embossing folder is Cuttlebug. I cut the card using the large scallop, lacy scallop and classic circle Nesties.

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Warm Up Blog Hop

Hello Friends! Welcome to the blog hop being held in conjunction with this week's "Winter Warm Up" online crop at CardSwaps. You should have arrived here from Tina's blog. If not, make sure you go back and start at the beginning with CardMaker's blog. You don't want to miss anything because there is a prize involved!

For the crop, a variety of fun challenges and games will be posted on CardSwaps February 8 - 11, 2012, and you will have until 11:59 p.m. CST February 14, 2012 to post your projects. There are prizes for challenge and game winners, and this time there is also a prize for completing the blog hop. You'll find details about how to win the blog hop prize at the end of this post. At the end of the hop you will be able to link directly to the online crop.

I gotta tell ya - the older I get, the less I like Winter. But there are still some good things about it. One of the things I most enjoy is soaking in a hot, steamy bath and dreaming. Here is the card I made to reflect my favorite Winter warm up.

For this card, I used the Happy Hopper image, "Bunny Bath." I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. Nope - I still haven't jumped on Copic bandwagon. They are way out of my budget and I am still happy with my tried and true pencils. :) The card base is made from kraft cardstock and I added some vintage-look striped and paisley paper, which I distressed. I embellished with a metal photo corner and wood buttons tied with twine. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age everything a bit.

Now here are the details about how to enter the drawing for the blog hop prize. At each blog in the hop you will collect a letter. Once you have collected all the letters, you will unscramble them to spell a word or phrase. At the end of the blog hop you will be directed to the thread in the forum where you can find the details on how to enter the drawing. To be eligible you must:

1. visit each blog in the hop
2. leave a comment on EVERY blog
3. collect all the letters
4. correctly unscramble the word or phrase (here's a hint - it's a way papercrafters warm up)
5. enter the game by following the directions in the forum. 

Everyone who meets these requirements will be entered into a random prize drawing to be held on February 15, 2012.

The letter for this blog is: D

Your next stop on the hop is Ivanka's blog and you are going to love her work. Everything she does is just beautiful and she has even had one of her projects published in CardMaker Magazine. Cool huh?

Here's a list of all the blogs on the hop in order, just in case you lose your way. Happy hopping!!

CardMaker  http://www.cardmakermagazine.com/blog/
Lora  http://www.lorabrinkman.com/
SusieQ  http://lilbitofme-susan.blogspot.com/
Laura  http://ljjonescircus.blogspot.com/
Marlene  http://marlenescubbyholecreations.blogspot.com/
Jane  http://jane-notsuchaplainjane.blogspot.com/
Golda  http://goldapete.wordpress.com/
Angelina  http://angel-artdesign.blogspot.com/
Tina  http://tina-craftingkewpie.blogspot.com/
Judy http://prairiewildflowerpapercrafts.blogspot.com/ < You are here.
Ivanka  http://ivankascardstudio.blogspot.com/
Teresa  http://www.tickellexpressions.blogspot.com/
Ana  http://anaggarciam.blogspot.com/

Rustic Daisy Candle

Hi friends! I was getting tired of the card that has been at the top of my blog for three weeks. I can't believe it's been that long since I've posted anything. My life has been more than a little crazy lately.

Elaine is hosting this week's member challenge on the CardMaker Magazine CardSwaps forum. It's a non-card challenge, and she asked us to alter a candle. I stamped the flourishes and daisies on natural color tissue paper, then applied them to the candle with my heat tool. I wrapped the bottom with a strip of burlap and some jute ric-rak and glued on a handmade daisy. The button center of the flower is tied with a piece of fiber that I pulled from the burlap.

I really enjoyed altering this candle. The technique was super easy and it was quick to make. I do think I need to practice a bit more as the surface of the candle got a little more bumpy than I would have liked from heating the wax to adhere the tissue. In this case, it kind of adds to the rustic look though.

This candle will be part of a set of gifts I'm making my mother for her birthday in February. She loves daisies. I'll post the other pieces when I get them finished.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sing

Hi y'all! I am hosting this week's member challenge on CardMaker's Card Swap forum. We have a different type of challenge each week, and I was asked to host a recipe challenge. Rather than a typical recipe challenge,  I decided to give mine a little twist. Instead of telling participants what to use, I am providing the recipe I used for my sample card and asking them to choose at least three of my ingredients to incorporate into their own creation. I tried to put a lot of different elements into my card to give them a number of ingredients to choose from.

Here is my recipe:

Colors: black, white, pink, neutrals + one color

Papers: cardstock

Stamps: collage, leaf, bird, music, butterfly, flowers, nature theme

Color Mediums: black ink

Embellishments: ribbon, twine (cord, yarn, etc. can also be used. My button is tied with crochet cotton), thread, buttons, beads, pears, rhinestones, stick pin

Techniques: embossing (it’s hard to see, but the black background square is embossed), collage, inchies, stitching

Tools: die cuts, punches, embossing folders or texture plates

Themes: nature, birds, butterflies, flowers, music, leaves

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello friends! Welcome to my 200th post! I made this card for this week's CardMaker Challenge Corner hosted by Lora. This week's challenge was to use scraps. I decided to use some of my scraps to make serendipity squares. I also used scraps to make the card base and white and blue mats. I totally CASEd this card, but I can't remember where I saw the original design.

I have made serendipity squares many times, but I really love the way these turned out. After I glued down the random pieces of paper, I painted over the entire piece with a thin coat of gesso. I then stamped paisley and script patterns randomly over the whole piece using Faded Jeans Distress Ink. Finally I used decoupage glue to  glue white tissue paper over the entire piece to bring it together and add a little texture. The first piece of tissue paper I stamped with a swirl pattern using Crushed Olive Distress Ink. After I put it over the background piece, I didn't like the way it looked so I peeled it off. It left the random splotches of green behind, but I really liked the way it looked. I may do that on purpose next time.

That's about it. I have tons of scraps and I plan to do more of the serendipity technique. I love the squares, but I also like the way it looks as a background for mixed media. It's so easy. It's something I can do to be creative when I don't have the energy to work on a big project.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clean and Simple Thank You Card

Hi friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was quiet and peaceful. This year we were able to spend Christmas with my parents and my husband's, which was very nice.

This is a clean and simple thank you card that I made. I almost feel guilty posting it. If it hadn't been for the flower, it would have taken me literally five minutes. I kept staring at it after it was finished thinking that I should add something else because I hadn't spent enough time on it.

I printed the sentiment on the computer, then cut the card to size. I embossed above and below the sentiment with the Cuttlebug Victoria EF, then embossed the horizontal rules with my ScorPal and a bone folder.

The flower is handmade using a template from Mel Stamps blog. If you have never checked out Mel's blog, you should. She has tons of templates, tutorials and links. She offers everything for free. I go there first anytime I need something. If she doesn't have it herself, chances are she has a link to a place that does. I transferred the pattern for the flower to my DP, then fussy cut it, inked the edges,  layered it, scrunched it up a little for dimension and added a pearl brad.

That's about all there is to it. I really like this card. I think it's very elegant - even if it does seem like it didn't take me long enough. :)

Thanks for stopping by. Happy New Year!!!

Peaceful Dove

I think I made it just in time! This is my final project for the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style challenge - Week 12. Today is the deadline, and as usual I am getting my project in at the last minute.

I am also submitting this for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is titled "Thru the Looking Glass: Projects with Depth." It might be a little difficult to tell from the photo, but the ornament is three dimensional. I achieved this by layering three Nestabilities die cuts with foam tape. The You really can't see the middle layer at all. I managed to cover it up with all the stuff.

You can see Linda's inspiration tag for week 12 of the Funkie Junkie challenge HERE. I was inspired by the gold color, music paper, holly and the bird cage. No I didn't use a bird cage - I don't have that awesome die and I didn't really want to spend forever fussy cutting a bird cage. So I used a bird instead. My intention was to use the Faux Crazed Porcelain technique that Shelly Hickox posted on Splitcoast Stampers last week. I did the technique and it looked great until I tried to flatten out the dove's right wing. Although I was trying my best to be gentle, the embossing cracked. I really didn't want to do the dove over, so I just cracked the embossing all over. I now I have cracked glass over crazed porcelain. :)

The base of the ornament is chipboard that I embossed with the Cuttlebug Victoria EF, painted with gesso and covered with Antique Gold Rub N Buff. I used the Labels 1 (or 2 - I can't remember the number - the square one) and turned it 90 degrees. I cut the centers wtih a circle Nestie. The middle layer that you can't see was painted cream color, inked with Vintage Photo DI and I left it oriented the "regular way". If I had turned it like I did the other two layers, you would have been able to see it. :) The holly is a stamp that I colored with Peeled Paint and Fired Brick Distress Inks and cut up. I used four of the images total. I also added some leaves punched with a Martha Stewart punch from handmade gold paper. Finally I added a music paper rosette and a poinsettia that I made from lace and pearls.

I have really enjoyed doing the Funkie Junkie tag challenge. I tried a lot of new techniques and different types of projects. I've discovered how much I love making hanging things. I am quite inspired by Linda's work. If you follow her blog you will probably notice that I CASE a lot of her ideas in my other projects too. I hope she'll do another challenge at some point.

I guess that's about it. I have a couple more Christmas cards to make for my family and a couple of small gifts, then I think I'm done with Christmas. I love making Christmas projects, but I think I'm about ready to move on to something else for awhile. :)

Thanks for stopping by!!