'Tis the Season at Craft Your Passion

Hello Friends, I hope you had a great weekend. It’s Monday which means we have a new Challenge up for you at Craft Your Passion and this week our theme is “Tis the Season.” So break out those festive holiday stamps and digis and join us for a chance to win a prize from our sponsor Simply Betty Stamps.

For my card this week I’m using the “Betty and Rudolph” digi. This was such a fun image to color. I made a simple gate fold card with DPs from Theresa Collins Christmas Time collection and gold metallic cardstock from DCWV.

The edge punch is from EK Success with red ribbon by Ofray and tied in a bow to close the card. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and I colored Betty’s little goth skeletons (so cute) with my silver Copic Spica. Rudolph’s nose and the bow on the gift got a coat of Glossy Accents.

For the inside of my card I authored a simple sentiment and framed it with my Spellbinders Square Fleur de Lis die by nesting the two largest size dies.

These are the Copics I used to color my image.

Stop over at Craft Your Passion and check out the challenge along with the wonderful DT’s creations.

Challenges I’m entering:

Make It Monday – Anything Goes

I hope you enjoyed my card…have a great week.

Hugz,

Birthday Cards for Sisters

Hello Friends and Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet which was kinda nice for a change. Last year my DH and I spent Thanksgiving with my mother, sisters and their families and my kids and grandkids. We traveled to my home town in Illinois and had a grand time. Of course it didn’t occur to me that they had also planned to ROAST me at a surprise 50th Birthday party. I was trying to ignore the fact that I was turning 50. But it was so fun.

This year my 2 oldest sisters and I are going on a cruise with our hubbies. It is just a week away and I can’t wait. So I thought I would share the birthday cards I made for my darling siblings with you. We all celebrate our birthdays in November and 2 of us occasionally celebrate on Thanksgiving day. Hopefully they will be too busy getting ready for the cruise to read my blog and peek at their cards…LOL

“Stella”

I’ve been enjoying these whimsy Bugaboo “Stella” digi stamps. I practically roll on the floor laughing. So I hope to get a chuckle out of my sisters.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and have a look. Check back tomorrow morning as I'll have another post for our weekly “Craft Your Passion Challenge.” Have a great evening…

Hugz,

Fall Inspiration Photo at Craft Your Passion

Hello Friends and I hope you had a great weekend. I have some exciting news to share with you. I have accepted a DT position with Craft Your Passion Challenge Design Team. I personally will enjoy every minute as crafting 'is my passion' and what better way to share my inspiration then to join a team of talented ladies.

Our Challenge this week features an Inspiration Photo with pumpkins and fall leaves. So for my very first project as DT I made a card showcasing this sweet little digi image, “Pumpkin Birdie” from the Doodle Pantry who is our wonderful challenge sponsor this week. This was such a fun image to color. And as some of you may already know I’m a bird lover as I have 10 ducks, 3 Geese and lots of wild feathered friends here on the ranch.

My DPs are from PTI which are just perfect for a fall card and the cardstock is from my stash. I distressed most of the edges with dark brown ColorBox ink. The sentiment is also from the Pumpkin Birdie stamp collection.

The ribbon accent was punched from my EK Success edge punch and adorned with satin ribbon from the Ribbon Spot. I made the bow with my Bow Easy and finished it off with a Cherry Blossom from WOC.

For the inside of my card I typed a simple “Happy Thanksgiving” greeting and layered it on the pattern paper.

These are the Copics I used to color my image. Wow…that’s a lot of color. Stop over at Craft Your Passion and check out the challenge and the lovely DT Ladies' creations for some great inspiration.

Challenges I’m entering:

Simon Says Stamp - Thanksgiving/Thank You
Rainbow Ladies - Thanksgiving
Creative Card Crew - Thankful
The Pixie Cottage - Family Thankfulness
The Pink Elephant - Giving Thanks
There's Magic in the Air - Giving Thanks & Colors

I hope you enjoyed my card…see ya next time.

Hugz,

Christmas Garland

 

Hello Friends and Happy Sunday! The weekend is almost gone and I still have so much to do to prepare for Thanksgiving. My DH and I usually host Thanksgiving at our home but our children and grandchildren will not be making the trip to Colorado so we will miss them incredibly. But my brother-in-law will be here as usual and we really enjoy his company.

By the way, I will be drawing the “WINNER” for my Blog-iversary candy HERE the Friday after Thanksgiving so if you haven’t entered yet don’t miss out on the chance to win. There will be more candy to win throughout 2012 so come back and visit often.

“Christmas Garland”

I’ve got several of these sweet hAnglar & sTanglar stamps and this is the first Christmas card that I made with the Christmas Garland kit. They are so sweet and fun, fun, fun to color.

My DPs are from EP Merry Christmas collection and the cardstock is from my scrap stash. I went a little crazy with the red and gold Stickles but I thought it should be glittery. Red and gold are my favorite Christmas colors which is also the color combo of our family tree decorations.

The satin ribbon is from The Ribbon Spot and I added a botanical die cut from Marianne Designs. The flowers are from Prima, layered and embellished with gold pearls and red Stickles. The festive gold pine cones and holly berry stamens are from Hobby Lobby.

My image got a coat of Glossy Accents on the holly berries, her coat buttons, the gold garland ribbon and her shoes. I also added stardust Stickles to her wings.

I used some elements from the front of my card for the inside and the sentiment is a cardstock sticker from the EP Merry Christmas paper pack.

These are the Copics I used to color my image. The Copic color combo I used for gold is YR24, Y15, Y11 and Y00. They really work well together so I hope you give it a try. Check out this video on coloring gold created by the absolutely talented Suzanne J. Dean. I really admire her creativity and artwork. I love to read her blog too; she is so entertaining and funny with tons of inspiration.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

Just Magnolia – Ribbon

ABC Challenge – D is for Dazzle
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes

Make it Monday – Anything Goes
Frosted Designs - Die Cuts
Paper Creations Ink - Christmas Theme
Paper Sundaes - Beautiful Bows

Stop by tomorrow as I have some exciting news to share with you. ‘Til next time…

Happy Holiday Hugz,

Do I Look Good on This?

Hello Friends and Happy Sunday to ya! WOW, was it ever windy yesterday! The foothills felt 90 mph wind gusts and we are close to the mountain range so we had at least 60+ mph winds. Although, the ranch survived it as well as the ducks and geese. They are pretty resilient and are probably about 10+ years old so they know what to do when we get severe weather. My hubby built a duck house for them last month but they have yet to use it. They will usually run for cover if we have hail; otherwise, they spend a majority of their time in the pond. That’s their safe haven.

This morning all the freeloaders (freeloaders are the wild ducks that hang around here only for a free meal…LOL) were on my front lawn near my flower garden when I let the dogs out. A huge cloud of flying birds swiftly made their way to the pond. Not sure why they were in the yard except maybe to forage for nature’s food. My African Geese eat dirt…what is that all about?...LOL I’ll have to post some video for you sometime because they are so funny to watch.

“Do I Look Good on This?”  

I worked on this card yesterday. It features a sweet digi image I got from Cuddly Buddly; his name is Fudge the Bear created by Pachela Studios. I fell in love with this cute little bear and had to pick up a couple.

My DPs are from SEI's Holiday Cheer collection which include the lovely red velvet paper that I matted under my image. I used my MS Botanical Scallop edge punch for the background pattern paper. The pine branch die cut is from Marianne Designs and distressed with Chestnut Roan ink.

The poinsettia is from Prima flowers that I layered and adhered 3 gold rinestones in the middle from Hero Arts. The red Bakers twine is from WOC.  

I colored Fudge with Copics using Xpress IT Card paper. I love how my Copics perform on this paper.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

Paper Creations Ink – Holiday Wishes for Kids

Make it Monday – Anything Goes

Do You Stack Up – Inspired by a Song

Southern Girls Challenge – Can you hear the music
Paper Sundaes - Digital Images
Hooked on Craft Challenges - Something Punched

The song that inspired me for this card is “O Christmas Tree.” Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by.

Hugz,

Edwin's Sled

Hello Friends! TGIF and the weekend is almost here. I have a short post today to share another Christmas card with you. This one features Edwin on Sled. I got him last year but never got around to making a card with him.

I used this sketch for my card from TOMIC’s Challenge blog.

The DPs are from BoBunny and cardstock is from the Paper Company. I ran the white cardstock through my Cuttlebug with my Ice Crystals embossing folder for a little extra dimension. The snowflakes were punched from 2 MS punches and layered with Zva Creative rhinestones in the middle. The ribbon is from Ofray and the snowflake charms are from my stash.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment with silver embossing powder on the inside of the card. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

These are the Copics I used to color Edwin.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

MDUC – Charms and Bling

Magnolia Stamp Lovers – Christmas Card

TOMIC – Edwin and a Sketch

Make It Monday – Anything Goes

Magnolia-licious – Photo Inspiration/Blue & Silver

The Pixie Cottage – Blue for a Boy

I hope you enjoyed my card. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugz,

Give Thanks

Hello Friends! We've been experiencing a mass migration of ducks through Colorado over the last few weeks. I took some photos this morning during breakfast feeding. The wild mallards are no longer fearful of me. They joined my ducks in the feeding frenzy as of this morning. I always carry my camera around with me as you never know when you might see some awesome wildlife.

Since we moved to the ranch I have seen a mother bobcat and her kitten, tons of dear almost everyday, 3 coyotes hunting a rabbit in the brush behind our horse arena and lots of different species of birds. I've not seen any bears yet but they are in the neighborhood as I hear reports of them getting into trash and houses to load up before hibernation. We try to take as many precautions as possible to ensure that never happens to us.

"Give Thanks"

I have another card to share with you today. I thought this would be an appropriate time to make a Thanksgiving card as it is quickly approaching the Holiday. This card was really simple to make. I raided my stash of buttons for this one too.

I used Edwin “Is this your Egg?” as my focal point along with my Magnolia "Wagon with Eggs" image. I cut the Eggs from the wagon to use it as a Fall/Harvest theme. I fringe cut some Bazzill yellow cardstock to look like straw, crumpled then adhered it behind Edwin.

For Edwin’s background I crimped some cardboard cardstock in my Fiskars crimper, distressed the edges with Chestnut Roan ink and added some faux stitches. I used my Spellbinders labels for my sentiments.

The DPs are from BoBunny Forever Fall collection. The buttons are trimmed with jute twine and Bazzill cardstock strips.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

Make It Monday – Anything Goes

Anything Goes Challenge – Stitches Real or Faux

Magnolia-licious Challenge – Fall Photo Inspiration

Simon Says Stamp – Buttons

Paper Play Challenges – Button Up

CMC Challenge – Boy, Boys, Boys

Through the Craftroom Door – Fall in Love
The Pink Elephant - Distressing
Come and Get it Challenges - Thanksgiving

Hope everyone is having or had a great weekend.

‘Til next time…

Hugz,

"A Magnolia Winter Scene"

Hello Friends and Happy Saturday! I’ve been MIA for about a week as DH and I traveled to Omaha to visit our grandchildren, attend my daughter-in-law’s baby shower and my cousin’s wedding. The grandkids are getting so big and they are so much fun to play with. We had a ball on the trampoline (Yes, Grandma will jump with the kids...LOL) I was surprised that I had that much energy but we needed some long overdue playtime together. Grandpa and I can’t wait to get them out here on the ranch during the summer.

“Winter Scene”  

I made this card and finished it this morning. This is my first try at making a stair step card and I really enjoyed using my favorite Maggie stamps for this project.

I started with Metallic White cardstock from The Paper Company for my base and hand cut rolling hills for my snow landscape from the same paper. Then I sponged a bit of Faded Jeans Distress Ink from the negative cut template for the snowy mounds.

I handmade my background paper using plain white cardstock randomly stamped with Magnolia snowflakes in VersaMark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I sponged the entire card piece with Faded Jeans for a resist effect.

I colored my images with Copics and used Flowersoft for the snow on my trees. The trees are decorated with ornaments using Viva Pearl Pens. I applied Liquid Appliqué to the fur of Edwin’s coat then I heated with it my embossing gun for a puffy effect. His apples and boots received a coat of Glossy Accents.

Tilda with Snowman has Stardust Stickles on the fur of her coat. The broom also has Liquid Appliqué for the snow and Glossy Accents for Tilda’s boots and the snowman’s buttons.

Tilda with Lantern also has Stardust Stickles on her coat and Glossy Accents on her boots. She sits on a Magnolia die cut fence that was cut from light brown cardstock and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The fence also has Liquid Appliqué for a snow effect.

I finished it off with some Poinsettias cut from my Marianne Designs dies and coated the centers with Gold Stickles. I made a pocket in the back of the card to hold a hidden Magnolia Tag die cut and used the same resist effect for my sentiment. The ribbon bow is white seam binding from WOC. I completed the card with random dots of white Sharpie Poster Paint pen on my images to make it look like it's snowing.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

Papertake – Anything Goes, Bling optional

The Pixie Cottage – Christmas Card

Craft you Passion – Bingo (flowers, pearls, punch)

Heart Song Inspirations – Embossing

Make It Monday – Anything Goes

7 Kids College Fund – Fancy Folds

4 Crafty Chicks – Die Cuts

Crafty Ribbons – Bingo (punch, flowers, ribbon)

Just Magnolia – Anything Goes

Magnolia-licious Highlites – Photo Inspiration
ABC DT Challenge - The Christmas Card

I hope you enjoyed my card. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugz,