Midweek Magnolias - Gingham

Hello, Friends and Happy Hump Day! The Midweek Magnolias Design Team has a new challenge for you and this week we want to see those lovely creations with “Gingham.” It can be paper, ribbon or fabric as long as we see gingham.

 

Hop over to Midweek Magnolias for inspiration from the DT’s gorgeous creations and leave some love on their blogs. When you join us for the challenge you’ll have a chance to win a fabulous Mystery Prize from Magnolia Sweden. 

 

 

I chose to make my card with the adorable “Tilda with Dot Bow” from the 2013 Love Collection. You can get her at the Magnolia-licious store. She is colored with Copics and I used the no-line coloring technique. I need some practice but this was my first try with Memento Angel Pink ink. I used a fabulous template from CREAlies for my card shape. However, I increased the largest template size by using my Silhouette Cameo to create and cut the shapes for me.

 

 

I distressed a bit around my paper panels with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and my cardstock panels are from Bazzill. My flowers are from WOC and Kort & Godt. I added my American Crafts gingham ribbon across the center of my panels and a small pearl on top of the bow knot. The LOVE sentiment was created with my PC cut and distressed in a block formation.

 

 

My easel card base has similar elements from the front and I heat embossed the “To My Valentine” sentiment with pink embossing powder. I punched it out with a circle punch and distressed with Frayed Burlap for dimension. I also used foam tape to pop up my sentiment and Tilda.

 

 

I kept my Valentine card light and simple…here’s a close-up of Tilda.

 

Supplies

Stamps: Tilda with Dot Bow and To My Valentine, Magnolia; LOVE, PC created

Ink: Frayed Burlap, Ranger; Angel Pink, Memento

Cardstock: Bazzill

Designer Papers: Affectionate, Carina Gardner

Dies: In Shape No. 7, CREAlies; Cameo

Ribbon: American Crafts

Pearls: Hero Arts

Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts; Kort & Godt

 

I’m entering this project in the following Challenges: 

 

Make It Monday – Anything Goes

 

I hope my card inspires you to join us this week at Midweek Magnolias. Have fun creating…

 

Hugz,

Challenge #105 at Craft Your Passion

Hello my fellow bloggers! We had an awesome Easter and my brother-in-law joined Hubby and I for Easter dinner. I would like to start by saying that it was fabulous which is due to the awesome cooking of my favorite Chef, Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. My twice baked potatoes were a hit. I also made a 10 lb. baked Ham, roasted asparagus and Ree’s Crème Brulee from this season’s Pioneer Woman on Food Network. I love Crème Brulee but never had to nerve to make my own but, because I love Ree and all her country living which includes her awesome recipes I had to try it. With that I will just say that there were only happy faces at  dinner last night. I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

Our new challenge is up at Craft Your Passion and this week our theme is “Shaped Cards.” That means no Rectangular or Square cards are allowed. I can’t wait to see what you all create. So to get you inspired the CYP DT has lots of ideas; you can visit them here. So without further ado our sponsor this week is Kenny K.

For my shaped card this week I used  a gear/circle shape that I created in Adobe Illustrator with a little inspiration from none other than Google search. There are so many things you can search on. Just type in a question, phrase or word and it will find a resource or an answer. I found a multitude of images with Steampunk inspiration for my card on Google.

I used BoBunny Timepiece collection for my DPs and Bazzill cardstock with a gear cut by hand (yes, I do that occasionally) and embossed with my Cuttlebug. Then I used Brushed Corduroy to distress the embossing and make it really stand out. I used the gear to create a circle easel card to display my gorgeous Val Ventura digi stamp.

Wow, did she take forever to complete! I love these stamps and they are fun to color but it took me 2 hours to color her with planning and testing.

These are the Copics I used to color Val Ventura, my new Steampunk baby!

I’m entering this project in the following Challenges:

Make It Monday – Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - Va Va Voom

Thanks for letting me share my CYP card with you this week!

Hugz,

I Brake for Stamps - Tina Mae

Hi, Friends. I have another card for I Brake for Stamps and I’ve used an adorable stamp by the name of “Tina Mae.”

She reminds me of a pet cow I had as a child when I lived on a farm in Illinois, or maybe it was Missouri, or maybe I’m getting too old to remember. Anyway, I do remember this…I was about 3 years old and I had a Holstein cow named Suki. He wasn’t the only cow in the barn but I remember my mother running after him with a broom violently swinging it back and forth at that cow when he got in her garden. I would cry buckets because I was afraid Mom would hurt him. I just thought she was a crazy woman and my family laughed about that for years.

So I had to have this stamp because it reminded me of Suki and that was probably one of my earliest memories. 

Here's a close up of my Easel card and the supplies I used.

DPs & Cardstock: Bazzill, Rhonna Farrer Digi Kit

Bakers twine: Doodlebug Designs

Flowers: Hero Arts and Recollections

Sentiment: Hero Arts

These are the Copics I used to color Tina Mae.

I will be drawing the winner for my IBFS candy later today so come back to check to see if you are the lucky one.

And don’t forget…you can save 10% at I Brake for Stamps just by using my coupon code SAVE10CATHY.

Thanks for letting me share my project with you today; have a wonderful week.

Hugz,

CYP Challenge 101 - Easel Card

Hello, Friends and Happy Monday. Wow, what a nice weekend it was here. We enjoyed warm sunny spring weather all weekend and loved it. Most of the snow has now melted; believe it or not we still have some snow on the ground mostly around the pond. A majority of the wild Mallards and Wood Ducks are beginning to fly back north and we are seeing some of our fair weather birds return to the ranch. That is a good sign and always means the seasons are changing. I got a few photos of a Black-billed Magpie busy gathering brush, twigs and stray duck feathers around the pond and a Tree Swallow searching for nesting areas. And our ducks, French Rouen Clairs, did some pond diving today which means the water is warming up. I got some video of them while they were swimming. But I’ll have to work on dubbing the sound because I can’t go in the pond area without my African Geese honking and hollering and talking to me cause they think I’m going to feed them. They are so spoiled.

I spent some time searching the web for horses this weekend as well. My hubby wants a Gypsy Vanner so I am in the market as it were. There are lots out there, I just have to do my due diligence and find the right one for us. Ok, so enough of the home and family life thing. I only write these passages for my loved ones who want to know what we’re up to on the ranch.

"Challenge 101 at Craft Your Passion"

Our new challenge is up at CraftYour Passion and this week our theme is “Easel Card.” Our lovely sponsor this week is The Paper Shelter. I just love their awesome digi stamps. So get out those supplies, join us for the fun and build an Easel Card for a chance to win a prize. Oh, and don’t forget to stop and check out the lovely Design Team creations too.

For my card I used the adorable “Let’s make a Picnic” digi for my focal image. She was so fun to color.

I also want to share my draft image that I colored in  grays to show you how I kept my focus on my light source.

I don’t always color a draft image but sometimes I tend to forget about my light source when I’m coloring especially when the image has a lot of detail. So I colored a draft using my cool gray Copics as there’s a lot of elements in this image. I got the idea from Zoe at Make It Crafty. She is an awesome artist and I adore her work. She publishes some wonderful ideas and helpful hints on her blog and in Magnolia Ink Magazine. So drop over and check out this talented lady's artwork.

Supplies Used:

DPs and Cardstock: BoBunny and Bazzill

Dies: Memory Box, Magnolia, Spellbinders

Stamps: Paper Shelter, Hero Arts

Flowers, Trim & Twine: WOC

These are the Copics I used to color my image.

I’m entering this card in the following Challenges:

Make It Monday – Anything Goes
Dies to Die For - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow as I’ll have a new project to share with you and I’m announcing my candy winner from last Tuesday’s post.

Hugz,

Prom Queen Tilda

Good evening, Friends! The weekend is just about over. I’m not really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow but I enjoyed the weekend. I spent most of it in my craft room since Hubby is in the Black Rock desert flying rockets. He’s such a nerd, (rocket scientist) but a happy one nonetheless... LOL

This card is a little more fancy than I usually make but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so as the saying goes, “just go with it.”

I used Prom Queen Tilda for my card and the poem was perfect which I found in my little book of “The Write Words.” It has lots of quotes and poetry that are just the perfect touch for cards and scrapbooks.

I’m entering this card in the following challenges:

CMC Challenge – Distressed Technique w/ Copics

Crafts and Me – Flowers

MDUC – Pink, White and Gold

ABC Challenge – Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew – Easel Card

Just Magnolia – Sketch Challenge

I’m not going to share any of my supplies this time because I’d probably be here all night. My dogs, ducks and geese are all in bed and it is time for me to head in that direction.

Thanks for taking a look and leave me a comment if you would please. ‘Til next time…

Hugz,

Tilda with Armful of Tulips

Hello Friends! I have a short post today with a card I made for the Magnolia-licious Highlites Easter-Spring Extravaganza Contest. It’s for category #2 - "Magnolia Minis Only" on an Easter/Spring themed card.

What a great opportunity to use my new mini Tilda with armful of Tulips. She is water colored with Distress Inks by Ranger. I have to be honest, this is my very first completed card using Distress Ink water color. I’ve been learning from the fabulous Angie Hunt at the Color Me Creative (CMC) Classroom hosted by the exceptionally talented Suzanne Dean. It is my favorite place to learn new techniques with a variety of mediums and make lots of great friends along the way.

My Spellbinders Scallop die is perfect for my flower shaped easel card. I used some pretty SEI and KaiserKraft DPs from my stash and cut a circle for a shadow box effect for Tilda. For the flower petals I sprayed some white Prima flowers with Glimmer mist and cut the petals apart and glued them around the opening of the shadow box. Then I added pearl ribbon around the edge. This was so simple and took very little time.

To make the stem on the inside of my easel card I freehand cut a strip of green cardstock and punched some leaves with my Martha Stewart Fond punch. I adhered it with dimensional foam tape and finished it off with a bow from some scrap ribbon.

I hope you enjoyed my card. And as always, thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit.

Hugz,

It's Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I wish all of my wonderful blog friends and visitors a “Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.”

This will be my last Christmas card to show you this year.

I’ve been wanting to use this sweet Tilda with Fir stamp and I finally made time to make a card and enter it into a couple of challenges.

The designer papers are from My Mind’s Eye, “I Believe” paper pack. And I used a new product that I just purchased from Susana’s Custom Art and Card Design store called Sparkly Fluff. I’ve not seen this before and thought I’d give it a try. I used a very light layer on the fur of Tilda’s coat so that the cute curls of the stamp would show through. However, you can add multiple layers for extra dimension. I really like this product and it is likely to show up on more of my projects.

Here is a close up of the Sparkly Fluff on Tilda’s coat. The sparkle is subtle so that it still looks soft but very elegant.

And here are the Copics I used to color the image.

This card is my entry to the following Challenges.

7 Kids Challenge Blog – Anything Goes

Just Magnolia Challenge Blog – Mina's Sketch
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Christmas Card
Top Tip Tuesday - Get Embellishing

Supplies

Stamp: Tilda with Fir, Magnolia

Pattern Paper: I Believe, My Mind’s Eye

Punches/Die Cuts: Large Ovals, Spellbinders; Botanical Scallop Edge Punch and Frond Leaf punch, Martha Stewart

Embellishments: Glossy Accents, Ranger Ind.; Ribbon, My Mind’s Eye; Sparkly Fluff, Our Craft Lounge; Flowers, handmade by Cathy with Prima “Got Flowers?”; Bead Spray, handmade by Cathy; Pearls, Recollections;  Sentiments, CHARLEE font from my PC

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

Hugz,

"Blue Christmas"

Hello, Friends!

Welcome to my "Blue Christmas" card. I made this card for several challenges this week listed at the bottom of this post.

I used HOTP Blue and Silver paper pack and this adorable Whiff of Joy Angel stamp.

The sentiment and holly leaves are from HOTP Christmas stamp collection embossed with silver embossing powder from Ranger Ind. I added rhinestones to the holly berries for some bling. The frame die cuts are Spellbinders Beaded Ovals and I added Blue Viva Decor Pearl Pen to embellish the ovals as well as the Silver Pearl Pen for the three pearls in the top right corner. I finished it off with white satin ribbon and a snowflake charm.

Here are the Copics I used to color the angel.

This entry is for the following challenges:
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Crafts and Me Challenge - Moody Blues
Stamptacular Sunday - Blue Blue Christmas
ABC Challenge Blog - J is for...
Top Tip Tuesday - Use Ribbon on your Creation
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Christmas

Hope you enjoyed my card...Thanks for stopping by.

Hugz,