More Flowers

Trying to get my act together to play along with this awesome challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays. We are to use pastels with some black!  I'm not sure whether the colours I used are considered pastels or not but I wanted to make this card anyhow.  And seeing as it's all about flowers I think I'll put it into the Hero Arts Monthly contest and the Lily Pad/Simon Says Stamp Challenge too which is to use flowers!

Paper:cardstock (PTI); notecard (Hero Arts); Neenah
Ink:Versafine Onyx Black; Tombow markers
Stamps:Hero Arts (CL493- sentiment; CG362 - Bold Flowers)
Other:bird die (Memory Box)

The colours did not come out clearly on the photo because the one flower is yellow and not lime green, and the other is pink and not that orangey colour!

However, I did want to leave you with some really beautiful flowers that we saw yesterday when we drove up to Independence.

Hope you enjoyed this splash of colour!  Have a wonderful day!

Little Flowers

I am in a flowery mood, so this card is going to be entered into the current Hero Arts Monthly contest, Virginia's View #3 challenge (which is what actually inspired the card) and Lily Pads/Simon Says Stamp Flower Challenge! 

It's a very simple card, a la me!  I decided to look for a small flower stamp in one of my Hero Arts sets and found this one in the Special Note of Thanks set (CL499).

Paper: cardstock (PTI); Neenah
Ink: Iris chalk ink (Hero Arts); Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics
Stamps:Hero Arts (CL499); PTI(Post Marks)
Other:dimensional tape

As you can see all I did was stamp the flower 5 times and colour each one in with a colour from Virginia's inspiration photo.  That middle flower is yellow, not sure why it looks lime greenish!

It's a beautiful warm day here with bright blue skies.  I got a very nice run in this morning in thick mist, it left me feeling like I was running in England somewhere on a cold morning except it wasn't cold!

I hope you all have a fabulous day!

A Flower Card

Perfect, a flower card that I can submit to two challenges!  For some reason I am not feeling overly inspired at the moment and yet I really want to make cards!  Do you ever feel that way?  Maybe it's because of being away for Spring Break, I have to get back in the groove.

So, after spending a good day an a half with my MIL, I did manage to make a card this afternoon.  I coloured in the flower with my Derwent pencil crayons and used some Gamsol to blend the colours a bit.  (I was doing this whilst watching Idols from this week and I have to tell you that I am not a happy person right now about who they voted out!  There was most definitely a certain comedian who really, really (in my opinion) needed to be voted out for totally undermining the efforts of the other contestants  by his constant lack of respect for the actual competition!  Anyhow, that's minor in my life, but the sad thing is that it is not minor in the lives of the contestants who really and truly see music as their life!)

Anyway, here is my card for both the current Lily Pad/Simon Says Stamp challenge over HERE and the Hero Arts monthly contest over HERE.

Paper: cardstock (PTI); Neenah Solar White; designer paper (MME)
Ink:Versafine Onyx Black; Derwent colour pencils
Stamps:Hero Arts (Stencil Flower CG194; CL342)
Other:clear embossing powder; buttons (HA); Flax Twine (The Twinery); MFTborder die

I love how Gamsol blends the colours so nicely.  It was nice to play with this flower again, it's been a while!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend planned.  Tomorrow I  am going running in the morning, then going to the gym with Lisa to listen to a talk on healthy nutrition.  Hoping that on Sunday we go to somewhere near Brennan to see the Blue Bonnets!

Thanks so much for popping in for a visit and I am so thrilled to see some new visitors.  I am just waiting on a few stamps and then I will be posting maybe more than one Giveaway!

Kathy's Lily Pad Palette for March

I had time to make another card last night and had been eyeing Kathy's colour palette challenge over at the Lily Pad and decided to give it a try. Plus, it's being sponsored by Purple Onion Design, do yourself a favour and go and browse around their shop and you will be quite taken in by some of their really fun images.

And for my card I used one by Stephanie Ackerman called "Cracked Egg - Chick".  It's too funny! I hope you like what I made!

Paper: cardstock (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Spun Sugar DI
Stamps: POD
Other: Pearls (Hero Arts); Nestabilitie Die

I paper pieced the image with the two different colour cardstocks after stamping the image in black ink and heat embossing.  I also inked the edges of my card with some Spun Sugar distress ink and I really love the subtle softness it added.  For me, finding those three little pearls in my stash was the cherry on the cake.

I think I am going to send this as a surprise card to my niece Megan in South Africa. She won't be expecting it which makes it all the sweeter!

One more sleep and we will be off to Disney!  Natasha can barely contain her excitement, and I am probably not far behind her!  My hubby on the other hand is going to have to work really hard on being patient, he is dreading the queueing, but a saying I learned here in the USA, which is totally appropriate for this adventure, he basically needs to "suck it up"!  Which I am sure he will, even if it is going to be an effort!

Have a wondrous weekend!

Virginia's View Challenge #2

I like to support friends as much as possible and so decided to play along with Virginia's second challenge over at the Lily Pad.

I loved the crispness of the colours in this inspiration photo and so went along with that and the idea of a cake in the form of a cupcake.

The stamps are all Hero Arts from some time ago.  I used the Swiss Dot cuttlebug folder to add some texture to the background which is popped up onto the card base.  You should be able to see that I did not emboss the entire panel, I left one strip untouched, scored on either side of it and stamped my sentiment there.  I then made the cupcake in three pieces and used pop dots to adhere that as well.

There just seems to be a lot of CAS going on in my blog lately, I think I need to change it up a little, I might be getting bored with myself!

Have a fabulous day!

Lily Pad Sketch Challenge & Some Winners

K 'n K Designs had two prizes up for grabs during the OWH Fundraiser Blog Hop this weekend and Cinnamon Sally was one of the lucky winners chosen from the comments on my blog!  Congrats Sally, I believe that Jan has already contacted you!  The other winner was Rhonda Miller from Shannon's blog, congrats!

Now onto the Lily Pad challenge. Lily Pad is having a sketch challenge, here is the sketch, (it's a good one) and I am also going to put this into the Wee Memories "Free for All" challenge:

I have been wanting to play with some of my Penny Black stamps and so I decided to combine a few of them with this lovely sketch.

Paper: cardstock (PTI); Neenah
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Bundled Sage & Forest Moss Distress Inks; Copic markers
Stamps: Penny Black (Poppies; Hello Friend; Paisly Outline)
Other: Trim (a gift from Lucy)

I love the red and green combo on kraft.  And those poppies are some of my favourites!  And I love the Paisly Outline stamp which I stamped over the inked surface simply by spraying the cling stamp with some pearlized water in a mister.  I adore that soft, subtle effect.

As for that gorgeous red trim, I received that from Lucy a while ago when I won something on her blog.  Isn't it the cutest trim ever!  You could be in your kitchen looking out of your window to the poppies outside!  Well, at least that is the vision I am getting.

On the sporty front, I did a Half Marathon race yesterday, and it did not go according to plan.  In fact, my worst race ever, and unfortunately it's due to a problem in my feet from repeated pounding on this concrete.  I think I have a tough decision ahead of me.  I love running because it's a superior emotionaly pleasurable experience for me!  Some of you will understand what I am saying.  Unfortunately, for a while now, it has not been that.  And I have been running for more than 25 years so I understand that with long distance running one is going to experience discomfort, but it's not that kind of discomfort I am referring to.  The problem in my feet is now part of my every day life where I am basically continuously  uncomfortable on my feet.  I am not giving up running, that would be the death of me, but I need to revisit my objectives and I may need to, for a while perhaps, (hoping that this problem can fix itself with rest), just decrease my distances considerably.  I don't know, I have not decided.  I have a follow up with the Podiatrist on Thursday and I want to discuss it with him.  I just don't know....running is my other child you know, the other thing I love....Thanks for listening, I had to write it down more for my myself than for anybody else really.

But, life goes on and it's still awesome!

Wishing you a fantastic day!

Getting Edgy Inspiration

I made the following card for the current CAS- ual Fridays "Getting Edgy" challenge and also the Lily Pad Inspirational challenge #3.  My inspiration came from THIS card by Vicky.

Here is my card which is basically cased from Vicky's card.

Paper: PTI; Neenah
Ink: various Distress Inks; Versamark
Stamps: PTI
Other: Gems (Hero Arts); White Embossing Powder

I am not really a ribbon person so I replaced the ribbon by tearing the one edge of the cardstock.  The sentiment is stamped with versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.

Just a short post tonight, I almost forgot that I had made this card for the challenges, so I just wanted to post it!  Thank you for coming to take a look!

Rainy Day Fhiona

Quite a while ago I won this cute little stamp from Karen at "Your Next Stamp", and this is the first time I have inked it up.  I thought I would use it to play in the Lily Pad challenge called "Lucy's Lovely Lines".  Lucy has provided us with a nice sketch:

Some nice patterned paper and a bit of copic colouring and some glossy accents was all I needed to make this card:

Paper: Girls Paperie; Neenah Solar White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Spun Sugar DI
Stamps: Your Next Stamp; Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts
Other: Spellbinders die; Glossy Accents

Can you see the rain?  I love glossy accents!  That cute little birdie is from the Lawn Fawn "Bannerific" set, it's the cutest bird ever!  I just pieced the umbrella with the same patterned paper as the background.  And I used the envelope stamp with some Spun Sugar distres ink on the sentiment strip.

Have a wonderful day, it's a new and short week.  My daughter finishes up with Pre-K on Thursday!

Lily Pad Embossing Challenge

With less than an hour to go I am entering this card into the current Lily Pad Challenge which is Embossing, in any form and it's sponsored by The Crafts Meow.  I went with dry embossing using the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder.

Paper: Cardstock (PTI); Patterned Paper (K & Co.)
Ink: Iris Hero Arts Chalk Ink; Vintage Photo DI
Stamps: PTI
Other: CB Swiss Dots embossing folder; Button (stash); Jute (Michaels); Corner Chomper

I love layering identical colours on top of each other and adding some dimensional dots!  I simply stamped one of the images from "Turning a New Leaf", cut it out and adhered it to the centre panel.  I then added a little button, some twine and gorgeous patterned paper (thank you Jacqueline), and there you have it!

Hoping you are having a great week so far, the long weekend is coming up!