Secret Garden

Snow, Snow, and more snow! Yup, still snowing! But spring is right around the corner-along with Maple Syrup Season. Can't wait for some fresh syrup-Yummmmmmmmm!

Today I have a card I made with the Stampin' Up "Secret Garden' stamps set and dies  from the Spring Mini Catalog. I used the color combo from the 'Fab Friday' Challenge #12, to use Wild Wasabi, Perfect Plum & Baja Breeze; the sketch from "Sunday Stamps #36", and I will also enter in the Crafty Cardmakers #85-Blooming Images-to have your focal be flowers.





 I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder  'Geometric Rings' for the background paper.  I inked my brayer with SU Bermuda Bay (closest I came to Baja Breeze) ink and ran it over the raised side of the embossing folder, inserted a piece of white CS and ran through my Cuttlebug. (There is a name for this technique-but for the life of me I can't remember-all I know is it starts with a 'B'! It will probably come to me about 3a.m.)  I Stamped the flower several times and colored with Copic markers. I cut 3 out with the matching die, then  fussy cut parts to layer them- three layers for the center flower, two for the outside 2 flowers. I stamped 2 leaf stems with Momento Bamboo Leaves, and added some detail with Copic marker G24. I cut one stem apart for the 2 side stems and layered them  under the flowers.
I stamped the sentiment from SU 'Happiest Birthday Wishes' with Momento Bamboo Leaves. Its matted on a scrap of green cardstock, then tied a piece of green ribbon (Offray) around.  I separated the layers of the flowers with foam dots. A little K&Co butterfly sticker finished it off.

flowers and butterflies

Gee, there's this big, round, yellow, strange thing peeking out from behind the clouds in the sky today:) And 'the drift' is back, although not as big as last time. The snow, however, in the back yard is piling up! The bird feeder is now only about 1 foot above the snow bank, and in the front yard almost up to the window. Just a normal winter day for us peeps living 'south of Superior' (Lake Superior, that is). Been a few years since we've had snow in these amounts, and I'm loving it. SOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty outside.

Anywhoooo, this card today started out for challenge earlier this week, and I just couldn't get it to work out, I just couldn'g get the elements to work, so I set it aside to let it 'ferment' so to speak. Then today I saw the colors over at The Dynamic Duos. Woo hoo! Perfect, and it all came together just like that.......! 

I had stamped, punched and embossed the butterflies, and stamped the background piece earlier in the week. Had the die cut laying in my scrap pile and was trying to incorporate that, too. Hmmm, jut didn't work. But when I looked at it today the package of little flowers were there on one side of the table, the piece of the darker cs with the window cut out was on the other side of the table-And the rest just fell together like that. I backed the window opening with white and stamped the sentiment from CTMH "Say it in Style' set in the window. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the butterflies were embossed first wiht SU Iridescent ice. Then  because the glitter seemed to be coming off I embossed them again wiht clear embossing powder, which really gives them some dimension.

I will also enter this in the "Tuesday Throwdown: Monochromatic; and the Fab 'n' Funky: Flower Power


Cardstock: Stampin' Up
DP: DCWV
Stamp: Close to My Heart 'Say it in Style', SU Papillon Potpouri, SU So Swirly wheel stamp
Ink: SU Pool Party, Versa-Mark,
Punches: SU Elegant Butterfly, Mini Butterfly,
Accessories:  SU Iridescent Embossing Powder, Stampendous Clear Embossing Powder, Spellbinders Labels 5, Basic Grey pearls, Offray ribbon, Martha Stewart flowers

Winter is back- and a flowery card

Good morning, or should I say afternoon, as glancing at the clock it is Noon! Hard to tell with the way it is outside today. Snowing heavily and wind is blowing like crazy. Activities all over Upper Michigan cancelled-can't see across the street at times. Glad I don't have to be anywhere today!

Today I have a card for the What If? Wednesday Sketch challenge F613 at The House that Stamps Built-Repeat Impressions. I really like this quiet, simple sketch.
Here is my card:

                           





















Dark pink cardstock is from my scraps.  Striped DP is K&Co.- Julianne. Image is a single from the dollar bins at JoAnn's or Michael's,  stamped with Staz-On Black. ( I have all my single clear stamps in baseball card collectors pages in a 3 ring binder. Unfortunately when I started this binder I didn't save the names of the stamps. Now when I add stamps I stamp the image on a piece of white cs and note name and where purchased. Great way to store these neat little stamps.) I colored the image with Prisma colored pencils, cut it out with Spellbinders classic squares. Mat is cut from a scrap if green with Scrapy Land exclusive Spellbinders die Fluted Squares. I used the SU wheel stamp Elegance and Memento London Fog ink for the background on the pink CS. A couple little snips of K&Co. border, a gold sticker 'Love', and some iridescent rhinestones to finish it off.

Just Bee-cause

Post 2 for today. This one is for the Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge #250 (WOW) over at Techno Stamper.

Here is my card, and the sketch I followed.

I pretty much made this with papers from my scrap basket. The only pieces that weren't are the solid gold (EP-So Happy Together) and the blue strip (a piece from a kit I got from my friend for my birthday last week-no name on kit, tho, so your guess is as good as mine!). This is another card I will be including in my box for Operation Write Home. Box is almost full! I cut the gold out with SU Labels collection and pierced around it wiht the template from SU Festive Paper Piercing pack (another birthday gift-Thanks Karen). I used Memento Rich Cocoa marker to draw in the stitching lines (seems I don't 'stitch' very straight by hand-haha). I used the SU Elegance wheel and Momento London Fog ink on the strip of Kraft cardstock for a little interest. The sticker is from a pack I picked up at Michael's a loooooooong time ago. Okay, maybe not that long :) Added 3 brown pearls to finish it off. 

Off to heat supper up! Left overs, Yipee! I don't have to cook! Later.................

Fairy Birthday Wishes

A beautiful, sunny day after nearly a foot of snow yesterday. At times we could not see across our backyard it was snowing so hard. But no wind, so no 'upside-down' drift :) I spent the day sewing banners for the 2 baptisms we had at church today. I finally, after 12 years of making these little individual banners, figured out the right way to make the tassels on the end of the cords for the hangers. Sometimes I'm a slow learner;).

Here is my first card for today. I will enter it in the "Seems A Little Sketchy' challenge #32. , and at the 'Tuesday Throwdown #134-anything goes.

I absolutely love this little fairy, she is so perky. She is from the SU set 'Fairies' (retired).  I stamped her in Staz-on Black on Bazzil White Simply Smooth cardstock and colored her with Prisma Colored pencils. I cut the image out with Spellbinders Classic Rectangles, then rounded the corners. I mounted her on a scrap of K&Co. green cardstock.The DP I used is from Echo Park 'So Happy Together' 6x6 pad. The border is punched out with SU scallop border punch. The base is some Bazzil cardstock. I added some gold peel-off stickers on the border and corners, and for the sentiment; and a couple of buttons with some floss tied on them.

Non-traditional Valentine

I tend to not make many valentine cards. I don't know why, because I think they can be sooo pretty. I think it tends to creep up on me before I know it, so I don't get any made. But when I saw the challenge at Crazy 4 ChallengesC4C172-to make a valentine-but to NOT use red or pink-I had to try it.
Now, it just so happened that laying on my craft table (still working with scraps!) was this piece of DP with hearts and it was in gold tones. Hmmmm, what to do. Then as I dug deeper (oh, ya, there's a pile there), I found this card base with the piece of gold CS. Perfect match! And there were these pieces of a darker and lighter gold. Well, I dug out my heart Spellbinders, a couple of stamp sets, some inks. I had my basic idea. So here is the results.

I cuta heart out of the medium colored tanny-gold paper & then stamped the sheet music image from CTMH stamp set 'Universal Backgrounds' with Versa Magic Gingerbread ink. I then mounted it on a darker gold scalloped heart. I cut out a plain white heart, and sponged Gingerbread ink around it while it was still in the die. I then stamped the sentiment from CTMH stamp set 'Mad About You'  with the gingerbread ink onto the heart. I mounted that on a scalloped heart cut from a scrap of medium gold CS. 

The flowers are cut from white CS scraps with the Cheery Lynn 'Cherry Blossom' die. I added some  Thatched Straw Distress ink  to the petals by pressing the ink pad on my craft mat and adding a bit of water, then using a paint brush. I applied Versa Magic Pumpkin Spice to the edges of the petals and dry brushed some of the PS to give the petals some definition. I used a stylus and foam pad to add some dimension to the flowers. I put to flowers together with a gold brad, then added some green fern foliage (MS fern punch). Three gold rhinestones finish it off.

As I was going over my challenge lists today, I realized this works for a few more challenges, too. Something I rarely achieve! I will enter this at the following challenges as well:
Papertake Weekly- to use Hearts and/or Flowers
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge (FTTC207) Just use “heart” elements for your card/project
The Dutch Dare Challenge- #203-Be Mine-your V-day creations!
Just Add Ink Challenge#152-Just add hearts.
Clearyly I Stamp #68-Let's Get Inky-creative ways for using ink.

Hope you like. Please leave a comment. Ciao!

The progression of the Drift

So, I promised to post pics of the progress of my 'upside-down' snowdrift.  This is where it started out the first day after our little 'storm' (ignore date on pic-needed to update my camera). This was on Wednesday, Feb 6. This one is taken out of the top pane of the (double-hung) window, and how it looked outside.

On Thursday, Feb 7th it had slid down about half the lower pane of the window. 

Here (below) it is on the 8th-it slid down about another 6 inches.  The second pic below shows it from the outside of the house.

This is what it looked like on Saturday (9th). It had warmed up a bit and the snow was starting to melt-therefore we had icicles hanging from the drift. As you can see, the sun was actually shining that day.

It didn't seem to progress any further on Sunday. Sunday night it rained-HARD! And was still raining on Monday morning. And, yes, most of the snow had fallen. So now I can see out my kitchen window again.

Looking out my kitchen window and a challenge!

So, in a previous post I mentioned how the snow was covering my kitchen window. Now, generally snow drifts start from the ground and build UP. Not so at my house!! Here is what I am seeing out my kitchen window at the moment. You can just see the bottom edge of the drift below the middle of the left window. (Ignore the dates on the pictures-darn camera keeps reverting to this date. If I ever find the book I might be able to fix that.)

And here is what it looks like from the outside. It amazes me the way that snow can just hang there like that. 

 

Here is the view from the dining room window. There have been times in the past when the snow drift on the ground has met the snowdrift from the roof, and we couldn't see out at all! It is snowing again this afternoon-big, fluffy flakes just drifting down. 

So, on to the challenge.

I recently purchased the Impression Obsession stamp 'Lighthouse and Boat'. I am have a great time making cards with this stamp-and mostly the scraps and stuff that have accumulated on my cutting table. I really like how this sympathy card turned out. I stamped the image and verse (verse-Marks Finest Papers-Oopsy Daisy set) with SU Night of Navy onto white cardstock. I added a scrap of My Minds Eye 'Moments' CS, and a mat of navy CS all mounted on a white card base.  (ignore date on photo-see above!) 

I will enter this card in the Paper Players challenge #131 - to make a sympathy card. 

Sweet as can bee!

Hi everyone out there in blog-land. What a perfect winter day here. I had to go to my daughter's at 7:30 this morning to grandkid-sit:) The sun was just coming up, the sky was mostly clear, what clouds there were were all purple and pinky-orange, and the trees were covered with a thick blanket of snow. SO pretty-but cold, brrrrrrrr. The kind of cold that makes your nose stick together when you breath! Had warmed up to about 17 when I brought them to my house about 9:30a.m. Sunny all day and everyone was busy digging out (our neighbor's car was almost buried). But it is even colder now. Hubby took me out for fish-fry for my birthday, and the thermometer was at 1 degree F when we came home just at dark. Going to be  cold one tonight. TGF a wood stove and a down blanket. Nice and warm inside.

                       






















My card today is for the Papertake Weekly Challenge #75. The challenge was a free-for-all-sketch challenge, to use the current sketch, or any previous sketch. I chose to use sketch #58. I had picked up this package of StudioG stickers at Michael's sometime over the summer-I love the bee skep image, and it was the perfect size for this circle die-cut. All the papers but the green CS and little sentiment flower is from the Close to my Heart "Pemberly" paper pack. Such pretty papers. I  sponged the edges of the DP with Momento Rich Cocoa, and mounted all layers flat. The bee skep sticker is double layer. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white CS with Momento Nautical Blue, cut it out with a flower punch (no name on it) and then sponged the edges with the blue ink and mounted it flat on the picture. As this is another for Operation Write home, I wanted it to be layers, but more on the  flat-ish side. I really like this sketch. It might become one of my 'go-to' sketches.

Paper: CTMH Pemberly, SU Old Olive CS
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Nautical Blue
Stamp: HOTP 'Tiny Words and Images"
Accessories: Spellbinders Classic Circles Lg & Sml, Studio G Stickers