Mystic Seaport Revisted-SCS Challenge

The Monday's Try a New Technique over at Splitcoast Stampers was "Faux Burnt Edges". For the challenge and tutorial on this technique click on the link I provided here.

Thanks to so many supportive and encouraging comments on my last vintage card, I gave it another try. This time it's something for the guys. I absolutely love this card. Must be the Connecticut Mystic Seaport person in me, right?

I followed the burnt edge tutorial. Then I pop dotted portions of the ship to give it a 3D effect. I used Stardust embossing power on the ship image to give it a shiny glitter look. (You know I love that glitter). I tied a twine bow on the card and used some brads. This was so easy.

Thanks for stopping by. Your comments are truly appreciated and are encouraging.

Victorian Elegance

Well alrighty then....this card kicked by buttock(said like Forrest Gump). I have never done "vintage" before and for some reason, this one gave me some trouble. I have been working on this card for four days. Well, almost...let me digress. We had a semi-tornado Monday night and we had some major yard clean up. I mean to say, we had big branches that broke off our trees that absolutely littered the yard. Our pool filter was found at the neighbors house, and every decorative piece on our fence posts were blown off and scatter throughout the neighborhood. So....I have been a little busy. No major damage...just lots of clean up.

This was made for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #7. Come on and join us for some fun and great prizes! Pssst....there's even some cash up for grabs. Also, the image is from Digital Two for Tuesdays challenge. There are some great vintage images if you care to try your hand at it.

Flowers are a combination of cuttlebug die cuts and punches
This was my first paper piercing
The scroll florishes are from Spellbinders
Used a cuddlebug embossing folder than sanded the design

Thanks for stopping by today. My battery died on my camera...so...stayed to for more real soon.

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge-Sunflowers

Today's card is for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge for week #6. Priscilla has some great prizes not to mention a wonderful talented design team. Just click on the link I provided above and go check out all the wonderful cards made with the sketch for this week. I invite you to come and join us for fun and creative mingling.

Now about my card. I think I am on a Sunflower kick right now...but that's OK it's summer right? Plus, your getting a break from the bears. lol Well in case you haven't noticed....I love to accessorize.....not only my wardrobe, but my cards....plus I love bling. I think our personalities come out in our creativity. So here is what I did:

1. Stamped Rubber Stampede Sunflower design with leaves twice and colored with pencils and blended with baby oil, cut out and stickled just the flower petals.


2. Stamped Hero Arts Sunflower stamp 4 times, colored with pencils and blended with baby oil, cut out 2 each of the whole flower , and cut down through the petals right to the center on the second flower. I cut off petals that didn't look nice. Then I stickled those petals waited for them to dry then glued in this order: 1 rubber stampede flower (it is slightly bigger) for the bottom, the whole hero arts sunflower in the middle, and the slightly trimmed down version on the top.


3. I glued brown seed beads in the center of the flower and let that dry.


4. Dots Sunshine and Sunflower Girl Stamp was stamped three times. I colored this and layered the hat, sleeves, and flowers for the 3-d look. I stickled everything that is yellow to match the sunflowers and cut her out.
   


5. Used spellbinders nesties for the black and white layers behind her. I glued the white layer on top of the bottom black layer, I pop dotted the smaller black layer and pop dotted the girl on top of that.


6. The lace strips are 1-1/4 x 11 (2 of each color) run through the Martha Steward Lace Border punch on both sides. This makes a perfect hole in the middle where I attached those gold brads you see. The amount cut is enough to do the whole card.


7. I masked the sentiment so that only the Wishing You Sunshine is shown on the outside, but when you open the card, it says Wishng you Sunshine and Sunflowers all year 'round.

I really enjoyed doing this card. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for all the comments and new followers. It sure is nice to have my work appreciated and it encourages me daily.

Carol

Need your vote-Teapot Teabag Holder

Hey everyone. Here is the second teapot teabag holder thingie I have done. Now, I need for you to let me know which one you like. Just leave a comment here. This one, with the way it opens all as one piece on top of the teapot, or the previous one that had the card area in the back that I posted June 18 found here. There are pros and cons to both. I noticed this one will not stand on its own. But you could still hang it on a tree for an ornament.

After I get your input. I will post the templates and attempt a tutorial....my first one (so please bear with me).....get it "bear" with me. I told ya I was crazy about bears. lol

I just noticed that on the left of this picture way in the foreground, you can see my bird condo that was the inspiration for yesterday's card. It has been fixed and is back up for my renters to return. I provide 3 squares, two baths, free living quarters, and lots of trees...all for exchange for the extreme pleasure of bird calls and songs.

Have a great Saturday.

Crafty Creations Challenge/ABC Challenge-Garden Card

Today's card is for the Crafty Creations Challenge and the ABC Challenge. The Crafty Creations challenge is themed "to see how your garden grows". This can range from what you would find in it, tools, scene, or anything garden. There is a prize of products from CTMH. The stamp set is the current stamp of the month- Tender Tags. The papers is a sampling 6x6 assortment of their current sets. For the ABC Challenge you are to do a card with a summer theme. I don't believe they have a prize this week. It's a great theme for both challenges, so come join the fun

This card was made with Hero Arts-Birdhouse village stamp. I colored it with pencils and blended with baby oil. The paper is from the "Citrus" Stack. I stamped my image, 3 times on white paper, cut with the square set of spellbinders nesties, and mounted different portions on the image to give it a 3-d effect. I stickled all the ivy, and just the border of the birdhouses and the scallop border around the whole image. The double fence is a Martha Stewart border punch-I used two pieces and I punched all the flowers with a collection of different flower punches I have. I placed rhinestones in the middle of the flowers and stickled them. I used the Martha Stewart Frond punch for the leaves. Spellbinders tag die was used for the tag.

Remember yesterday about the 50-60 mile an hour winds. Well my husband built me a bird condo like this and those winds wiped some of it out yesterday. He is going to have to fix it this weekend and put it back up in our yard. This card looks like our back yard. lol Thanks for stopping by.

Teapot Teabag Holder Card

Good afternoon everyone. Here in Georgia we woke up to what the weather forecaster's said was 50-60 mile an hour winds, thunder, and pouring rain. Some places were suppose to get hail, but we didn't. I looked out the window at 6:30 a.m. and I can attest to the winds. Holy moley the trees were swaying. This afternoon though it is up in the high 90's.

Today's card/teabag holder was inspired by the "Project Tuesday" challenge. The challenge is to make a teabag holder using these teabag holder directions from SCS. Well, I have never made one of these, but I have always admired and loved them. I wanted to take it a step further though. I had seen someone make a 3 x 3 post-it holder similar to this. So I did a little creative tinkering yesterday and came up with this.
This is the back of the tea pot. I created a card area to write a sentiment to the recipient. I am still tinkering with this design. I want to try putting the card with the tea bag area instead of the back.
This is a picture where you untie the bow and open the flap and the tea bag is in the pocket. This is where I am thinking of putting the card. I am going to try it tonight. Please forgive me if you see to many of these at my blog the next couple day. lol I would really like your opinion concerning the card area.

I am sending this one off to Connecticut to my beloved Mother tomorrow. I want to keep her spirits up. She has had a rough year health wise. She loves receiving things I made. She is going to flip over this one. I was just thinking how pretty this would be for Christmas tree ornaments. And speaking of which, I need to change out my tree in my foyer to my patriotic decorations. Think I will do that this weekend. I'll post a picture of my tree too!

Carol

Father's Day Suit Card

Wow, was this card fast and easy. I cased this card from Isapassion on Splitcoast stampers and her card can be found here. The link that she provide for the tutorial is at Stamp with Kathy. There are quite a few wonderful things to make for those special men in your life for Father's Day. Check it out. Have fun making your special someone something for Father's Day.

Thanks for looking!

Carol

Winnie the Pooh Dutch Dare Challenge #52

Who can resist "Winnie the Pooh" chubby little cubby all stuff with fluff! I was reading the Daily Dare website and came across a challenge for Dutch Dare. Over on the Dutch Dare blog they are asking for challenge participants to send their cards to Post Pal's. Post Pal's are sick children and this just touched my heart. When I read this challenge, I knew I wanted to participate and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. So here is the card I will be sending off tomorrow to a pal. I am excited that sometime today I will be picking my pal to send this too. This was such a wonderful card to make. Who wouldn't be cheered up with all these bright wonderful colors.

Here's what I did:

Winnie the pooh was paper pieced- I found this picture on the web here. I resized it and cut it out to how I wanted it to look. I glued a little butterfly rhinestone to his nose.
Paper:Blossom and Butterfly Stack
Flowers: Various paper punches and flower brad
Outlined the butterflies and flowers with stickles
Sentiment was from the $1 bin at Michaels

I am so pleased how this card turned out. You know I would have to send a bear, right! lol Thanks for stopping by today and checking out what I have been up too. Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Carol

Thoughts of You Blue Bird

Today's card is for the MyGrafico Challenge #4. Martha the team leader gave us our choice of one of four different digital images of these cute birds to create a card with. As soon as I saw these, my mind immediately started imagining what I would do with them. The curly tail is really what got me going. I had so much fun putting this together.

First I printed three of the birds. I colored them with my pencils and used baby oil to blend. Then I cut out two whole birds and one just the wing section for a total of 3 layers. I then used my scalloped circle nesties to cut out the base and stamped it with an Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps Rhonna Farrer-Swirls with Dew Drop Pearlescent Sky Blue ink. I then used the same ink to color my feathers. I really like how the ink went on the feathers and gives it lighter and darker effects. I glued one bird down on the scalloped circle, then glued the tail feather and the head feather on top. I pop dotted the second bird on top of the first, then glued the wing feather on top of the second bird, then pop dotted the wing on top of that. I used my pencil to color the border of the circle and blended again with baby oil. Then I used stickles on the border of the circle and just the border of the bird including the swirly tail, and stickled the whole wing. I glued a small rhinestone to the center of the birds eye.

The base is stamped random with the clear Autumn Leaves Swirls with Pearlescent Sky Blue ink. The blue DP is from the Butterfly and Blossoms Stack. I used a fiskar's border punch to punch both sides of the white contrast strip. The flowers were cut from this same DP in three layers. I used the tutioral from Split Coast Stampers here from Thursday's "Way to Use It" Challenge. I stickled just the edges of the flowers to give them some added pizazze and used a little larger rhinestone in the center to match the bird. Ofray ribbon in sheer white was used to tie the bow.

If you have any questions I would be happy to assist you in recreating this card. I appreciate all the comments I have received and hope you find the directions helpful. I would gladly accept any suggestions at making it easier to understand if I am not clear. I am still new to this and learning everyday.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.
Carol

Res-Q-Challenge 12-Just "Bee" Cause Bear Card

Another hazy, hot, and humid day in Georgia. I fertilized my garden early this morning and jumped in the pool by 7:30 am. The morning weather report said it was 80 degrees at 5:30 this morning. The pool water was at a very lovely 86 degrees. I watched and listened to the birds singing while floating. So relaxing.

Today's card was inspired by the Res-Q-Challenge. Here were the instructions":

"Pull out some cheery papers and colors and create something that features a B; “be” that an image that starts with the letter b or “bee”utiful embellishments or even the letter B itself. No restrictions other than to use your “B” as a focal part of your project. Then, think about sending it to someone who could use a gentle reminder to “Be Happy!”

I have had this stamp for about a month and just inked it up today. When I read this challenge, I thought of this stamp immediately. I couldn't resist taking the photograph of the card with this Boyds Bee Bear. I know the stamp is a Cherish Teddy, but I just love them together.

I stamped the image three times-one for the base, I pop dotted the second and cut out the wings and bee suit, and pop dotted for the third layer. I used some stickles on the wings and bee suit.

Used my spellbinders nesties and tag die, TPC Studio Bugs and Butterflies card stock, prima flowers, MS branch punch, ribbon, and gold brads for the center of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by today.

White Birthday Card

I participated in the color challenge at SCS from Tuesday. We were to make a one layer card using white card stock. Well, today here in Georgia, it is hazy, hot, and humid, so I could not think of a better day to make this card because everyone knows white reflects the heat and black attracts it. So I am trying to reflect some heat from here today. I plan on jumping back in the pool in a couple of minutes too before I cook dinner!!

The only stamp I used on this card was the birthday sentiment. I just used the cuddlebug birthday folder, the swirl folder, and the birthday 2 step die cut with embossing folder combo. The only tools I had used before was the swirl folder. I really liked how this came out.

Directions:
Swirl embossing folder then cut the flowers out with Whale of a punch daisy, marvey med. daisy, and marvey sm. daisy-attach altogether with a white brad and put on some stickles.

Cut out your birthday cake then emboss-I put stickles on the candle flames and frosting. I used pop dots to attach to give it some dimension.

Ran my cardstock through the cuddlebug two times with the birthday folder

Used EK success border punch twice and glued it to the bottom.

Tied a ribbon-stamped a tag and tied it on the bow.

Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are keeping cool in your corner of the world.

Carol

Sunflower Flowerpot Bear Birthday Card

Awww, here I go with the bears again. My life is filled with bears everyday. They make me smile, always have. I love to watch the nature shows where the bears are fishing for Salmon with their cubs. I could watch it every night. lol

This was for Splitcoast's Challenge "Way to Use It". You had to make your own image either from punches, arrangement of brads and buttons, or draw your image and cut it out of cardstock. I paper pieced this bear sitting in the flower pot. I ran the flower pot and the sunflower through the cuddlebug with the swiss dot folder. The grass was run through with the swirl folder. The flower was punched with a paper punch three times and arranged with a rhinestone in the middle. I chalked all the edges of the paper pieces for contrast.

This was so much fun to make. It seems pretty enough to frame and hang in my house. I need to take a picture of my sunflower bear corner and post it on here. This would look so beautiful framed with my sunflower bears. The card is off to California tomorrow for my Sister-In-Laws Birthday.

EK Success Border Punch for the borders
MS Branch punch
Whale of a Punch for the Sunflower-Rhinestone center
Cuddlebug-Swiss dot folder and Swirl folder
Cricut Cartridge Beyond Birthdays for the Sentiment
Square Rhinestone Yellow Brads
Ribbon, Stickles, Chalk

Thanks for stopping by and have a great evening.

Pug Birthday and Thank You Cards

Here is a couple pictures of the set of cards I made for my friend to go along with the 3 x 3 Note Card box. I just love these dog themed papers. This was so much fun to put together. My friend really loved them. She said she would be afraid to use them. I was thinking there could be so much you could do with this. Maybe put a little Santa hat on the dog for Christmas Cards and also a Birthday hat for Birthday cards. I am sure she will be the recipient of more of my creations. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Carol

3 x 3 Note Card Box

Aren't these the cutest??? I am thrilled with how these came out. I have been wanting to make the box for a long time. You can find the tutorial here. This is a gift that I am giving a friend for her Birthday. This is was so much fun to make and a lot easier than I thought. I have to make the envelopes next, but that shouldn't take long. Thanks for stopping by tonight.

Items used:
Spellbinders nesties, MS-branch-frond-border punches, ribbon, stickles, dog brads, prima flowers, and rhinestones.

Carol

Back to Back Bear Birthday Card

Here is a card made with an image I got from my friend Carole when we spent a day together stamping. I love bear stamps and was surprised I didn't have this stamp, it is so cute. I used All Night Medias Liquid Embossing in Sepia on my image. This was the first time I ever tried this and I loved it. If you click on the picture, I think you will see the glass effect the bears have. I used my cricut to cut out the swirls on the top and bottom of the ovals. This was fun to do. More Birthday cards to come. Thanks for stopping by!

Items used:
Spellbinders nesties, ribbon, prima flowers, stickles,Liquid Embossing-Sepia, cricut home accent cartridge, MS frond and branch punch

Carol