Christmas Elegance ....

... Good morning all, and welcome to this week's 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge.  This week we have a colour challenge for you - to use Black, Metallic Gold and White!

I made a couple of card - both with baubles.  Here's the first card:

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Ornament Keepsakes; My Favourite Things - Seasonal Sentiments
Inks: Staz-on - Jet Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versamark
Dies: SU - Holiday Ornaments Frames
Accessories: SU Card - Basic Black; Gold Linen texture card from stash; Anita's - White DL Card; Peeloffs from stash; Gold embossing powder

I used the layout from this week's Freshly Made Sketches - FMS76 challenge, changing the squares to ornaments!  I used the very elegant long ornament to make three ornaments - black on white, black on gold and gold on white, then used the coordinating dies to cut them out.  I cut a panel of black card and edged it with gold.  I have a vast collection of peeloff stickers and found this long sentiment - just perfect to go along the bottom edge.  I kept the inside of the card very CAS with a black and white layers, stamping the greeting in black and adding a couple of small gold peeloffs.

I was having such fun with these colours that I made another card!

Stamps: SU - Ornament Keepsakes; Waltzingmouse Stamps - Nordic Winter; My Favourite Things - Seasonal Sentiments
Inks: Stazon - Jet Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #4, Squares Lg (S4-126) #6; SU - Holiday Ornament Frames
Accessories:  Pink Petticoat - Little Swirls digi paper; Black Gloss Card; Gold Ribbon, White Lustre card

While going through my black and gold card I found this lovely old gold paper with swirl pattern; it's an old Pink Petticoat digi paper - I simply printed it on Conqueror Metallic Gold paper.  I thought it was just right to go with the elegant flourish pattern in the ornament.  I covered the card base with the gold paper, cut the ornate frame from black gloss card and layered it with white card onto which I stamped the sentiment.  I attached the bauble with some dimensional gel and added a gold ribbon.  For the inside, I cut a square of the swirly gold paper and some white card and stamped a clean and bold sentiment.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the team - they have some wonderful cards to share with you.  Looking forward to seeing your designs with this week's colours.

That's all for now - I hope you have a super weekend planned.  I'm attending a photography class today to learn how to use studio lights and natural light to get a better picture.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And after we are all off to see "Oz the Great and Powerful" - the trailers look spectacular.  I'll give you a review later.  Have a great weekend!

Easter Blessings .....

.... Hi, good morning!  Thank you all for the kind wishes - I'm feeling so much better - mind, the sun shining really helps!  I even managed to find some time to play in my craft room yesterday afternoon and made another of the Easter cards that I need.  I used a couple of challenges to make it:

• Mojo Monday - MOJO283
• Colour Throwdown - CTD232

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Yonder Star Background, Spring Baskets, Nestie Eggs; Stampin' Up! - Lacy & Lovely; CAS-ual Friday Stamps - Loving Thoughts
Inks: SU - Pool Party, Calypso Coral, So Saffron
Dies: Spellbinders - Nested Eggs (S4-264) #4
Accessories:  SU Card - Crumb Cake; Cuttlebug EF - Swiss Dots;  SU Marker Pens - Pool Party, Calypso Coral, So Saffron; White Lustre card from stash

These colours are just perfect for an Easter card - soft,  subtle and spring-like!  This is a super sketch and I've kept pretty close to the layout - I changed the circle to an egg!!  I made the card base from SU Crumb Cake and cut a panel of white which onto which I drew some faux stitching using my Pool Party marker pen, then I embossed it with the dots.  I used up quite a few scraps of card too - stamping the Yonder Star BG onto white card and then cutting out an egg (thanks to Julia Aston for this idea) and stamped the sentiment in Calypso Coral.  On another scrap of white card I randomly stamped some flower images and cut the panel to size.  I finished the the front with a few flowers which I stamped onto white card and coloured with SU markers.

The inside is really simple - a piece of white card onto which I stamped the outline of an Easter Egg and a simple greeting, with a couple of little eggs in the corners.

I'd like to welcome a few new followers, so join me in say Hi to Stacey, Louise and Danielle - so glad you've joined me ladies!

That's all for now - be safe!  See you tomorrow.

Stampin' Up! Class ....

...  Good morning!  I was hoping to get this post up yesterday afternoon, but I've not been feeling a hundred percent well at the moment, and I ended up falling asleep on the sofa!!!  Anyway, I feel a bit better this morning, so I thought I share the cards I made yesterday at my upline, Karin's place.  Here's what I made:

Stamps: SU - Madison Avenue
Inks: SU - Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Pool Party, Island Indigo
Accessories: SU - Sycamore Street DP; SU Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White card; SU - Pearls

This is a really fun card - the centre section moves!  The design paper is double sided and I opted to use the lovely multicoloured grass side - most of the rest of the class used the other side!  And being a rebel I stamped the flower in Pumpkin Pie (the rest of the class used Rich Razzleberry).  Next, an elegant birthday card.

Stamps: SU - Blooming with Kindness
Inks: SU - Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse; Versamark
Accessories: SU Card - Midnight Muse, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; SU - Twine; Clear embossing powder

Another really quick and easy card to make.  We stamped the flower in Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder, then sponged on some Crumb Cake ink revealing the flower.  Next I stamped on the birthday sentiment and torn off a small section giving a lovely rough edge.  This was layered onto the Crumb Cake and design paper panel, and some twine was wrapped around the panel.  It was attached to the card base with dimensional pads.  We followed this with a sympathy card - it's always a good idea to have one or two in your card stash.

Stamps: SU - Serene Silhouettes
Inks: SU - Pool Party; Stazon - Jet Black
Dies: SU - Window Frame Framelits
Accessories: SU Card - Basic Black, Whisper White, Pool Party; SU EF - Fancy Fan; SU Ribbon - Sycamore Street

The card base is made from Pool Party with mats in Black and Pool Party.  The Pool Party mat was embossed using Fancy Fan.  The Black and white layers were die cut using Window Frames Framelits.  We punched a circle to create a mask for the moon and sponged on some Pool Party ink.  Next we stamped the silhouette image and cut the panel into unequal parts and layered onto the black panel.  A simple sympathy sentiment completes the card.  Finally, a really fun and funky card.

Stamps: SU - Sent with Love
Inks: SU - Real Red, Midnight Muse
Accessories: SU Card - Real Red, Whisper White; SU Punch - Postage Stamp; 2½" Circle

This was so quick and easy to make.  I simply stamped three square, used the postage stamp punch to cut them out and then cut out the hearts with another punch.  I used the large circle punch and then stamped on a couple of images.   I finished off with a simple sentiment in the corner.  The rest of the group made this card as a bottom opening card instead of side opening like mine.  The design works perfectly in both landscape and portrait orientation.  I made a coordinating envelope for the card.  I think this one will be in the post shortly, going to my son Ben!

Edited to add:  Credit for the original design (as all our class cards are CASEd) goes to Danielle Calder.

I've had good morning catching up on some household duties - cleaning, tidying, etc - but I think now I'm going to sit down and have a look at the new stamps from Clarire!  See you later.

Red carpet dresses ....

.... Good afternoon - told you I'd be back.  Kathryn and I had a really fun morning visiting Twelve Oaks Mall at Novi - Kathryn did very well, coming home with some new T-shirts and a jacket, as well as a pair of shoes!  I paid a quick, but not cheap, visit to Archivers and came home with some Tim Holtz bits and pieces.

I spent the early part of this afternoon checking out the fabulous cards that the Waltzingmouse Stamps DT have made with one of the new sets coming out on Friday - A Good Egg - all just lovely!  And then I realised that I only had a few hours left to make a card for the current challenge at Waltzingmouse Stamps.  Claire had been watching the Oscars and decided that it would be fun to take inspiration from the Red Carpet dresses - WMSMMM4  worn by the stars on Oscar night.  This is fun for two reasons: it gave me an excuse to have another look at some of the wonderful dresses and then to make a card!  Here's what I made:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - You're Lovely
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories:  Promarker - French Navy; Cuttlebug EF - Jules Jewells; Glitter paper, white lustre card from stash

This really is about as clean and simple as it gets.  I stamped the dress onto white card and cut it out. Then I tried to stamp the dress on the glitter paper - wasn't a success, so I made a pattern, traced it on the back and cut it out - simples!!!  I cut a panel of white card which I embossed with the elegant flourishes and adhered that to a panel of the glitter paper.  I shaped the dress and attached it to the card with dimensional glue.  I finished off with this lovely sentiment from the same set; I actually used a Promarker as none of my ink pads were close to the colour of the dress.

There were so many lovely dresses worn on Oscar night that it was really hard to pick one - so I based my card on two dresses that I particularly liked:

 Jennifer Hudson - Gown by Roberto Cavalli

 Robin Roberts (presents Good Morning America) - Gown by Marc Bouwer

I think they both look stunning.  Robin had a bone marrow transplant at the end of last year - she looks stunning now!

That's all for today.  I need to finish off my Easter cards and get them in the post so hopefully I'll have a card or two to share tomorrow!  See you soon.

Thank you and some arty stuff ....

... Morning, this is just a quick post to say thank you to everyone for all the kind comments and wishes on my new Design Team post with 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - I really do appreciate the time you take to leave such lovely comments.   What better way to make all the cards I need for Christmas?

Now I thought I'd share a few photos of the art I created at the weekend in Amy Flowers's classes.  Amy is such an inspiring teacher - we all had a blast. 

Our first class was to make an art journal from scratch.  We started with five sheets of plain watercolour paper, prepared them all and then played with paints, stencils - it was fab!  At the moment my journal is still separate pages, but I'll get it put together soon.  Here are a few photos of my pages:

The photos above are for my journal - you can see that I still have a lot of work to do on the middle page - sanding, stamping, journalling etc.

The photo above is the cover from Amy's journal - just love it!

The next class involved bees wax!  I did one of these classes last year, where we created art works with bees wax - well we did the same again, and also created a faux bees wax picture.  This idea of a faux work is great - it won't melt in the heat of a Michigan summer!!!  Here's my work from the class:

Above is the wax picture with the ephemera laid out.  I took a photo as I wanted to get it all back in the right place !

Above is the finished picture.  All the pieces have been adhered and held in place with bees wax.  I also used wax pastels to define the leaves and flowers.  Not only is the class a fun messy hands on experience, it smells great too.

Above it the faux wax picture - it almost has the same texture as the wax, but it doesn't smell as nice and, importantly, it won't melt in the sun!!

The last class on Saturday was to start on an altered book, and as I've only got a page done - I'll share that another time.

On Sunday I attended the last of Amy's classes titled Mirepoix Collage.  Mirepoix is a cooking term referring to three key ingredients for a recipe - here it relates to three elements for a great collage.  We used three canvas to create a triptych - applied collage, acrylic paints, stamps and stencils and several gels which dry transparent and allow the design to show through.  It was fantastic!  Here is my triptych.

This is the complete triptych laid out on the table as I plan to hang it on the wall in my craft room.

Photos showing the individual canvases, and below are a couple of close up photos showing the transparent gels - I had to add some paint to define the edges otherwise you wouldn't see the shapes!!

Here are some photos of work done by my class mates - we all started with the same materials and ended up with something unique to us! 

The triptych above was created by Jessica - I love the colours she used.  It has a very South-West vibe.

The was created by Jessica's mum - Dee. 

That's all for now.  Kathryn has a day off school and we're going to go out shortly - so I'll see you soon.  Have a good day.

Heartfelt Christmas Wishes and news .....

....  Good morning everyone!  I got some really exciting news, I've been picked to join the fabulous Design Team at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, along with Patricia and Sarah.  You should have seen me when I got the email, I was jumping up and down with delight when I got the news!!  And here I am with my first card for the team.

Louise is the hostess this month and she has a super sketch for us:

 I decided that this sketch called for some lovely Christmas papers and this is my card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage; Love Santa (free with Cardmaking & Papercraft); SU - More Merry Messages
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Real Red, Old Olive
Dies: Spellbinders - Marvellous Squares (S4-383) #4 & 5; WMS - Festive Foliage cut on Cameo
Accessories:  Kaisercraft - Christmas Paper (free with Simply Cards & Papercraft); Gold satin card, cream lustre card, ribbon and gems from stash

I found three coordinating papers in the Kaisercraft pack, used one to cover the card and cut the other two into squares and then triangles.  I took the top and bottom of one paper, and the left and right of the other and attached them to the card, allowing the plum paper to show through (I'll share the other card later this week).  I used dies to cut the ornate square in gold and a layer of cream onto which I stamped the greeting.  I wrapped some ribbon around the cream card and attached it to the gold.  I cut the holly and berries on my Cameo and stamped the images - this was so quick and easy to do!  I finished with some gems.

For the inside of the card I used another piece of plum paper for the mat and on the cream card I stamped some more holly and berries as a very simple sentiment.

Do check out the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown blog, as I know that the rest of the team have some wonderful inspiration cards to share with you.  Looking forward to seeing your lovely cards.

That's all for now - I'm off out today at some crafting classes in Northville with the fabulously talented Amy Flowers - I'll share photos later this week!

Easter MUSE ....

.... Hi - this is quite late, but I thought I'd get it posted before heading to bed.  I've got an Easter card to share with you - based on this week's Muse Challenge - MUSE6.

 

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Spring Baskets
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Cuttlebug EF - Jules Jewells; Promarkers - Mango, Peach, Soft Peach, Pear Green, Cool Aqua, Pastel Green; Copic - E21; Stampin' Up! Design Paper - Melon Mambo; White lustre card from stash

The Muse this week is Deanna Jean with her lovely floral birthday card.  I flipped the layout for my card, but kept to the colours (mostly) that Deanna used.  I cut a piece of white card slightly smaller than the card base.  I lightly traced, in pencil, a rectangle on the card and then, taking my courage in both hands, drew the border free hand!!  Really pleased how it turned out.  I stamped the sentiment and then embossed the panel in my Cuttlebug.  On plain white card I stamped the basket full of Easter eggs as well as several sets of flowers, colouring them all with Promarkers.  I cut them out and attached them to the card.  For the finishing touch, I stamped the little bow onto some pink design paper, cut it out and attached it to the image.  Only about six more Easter cards to go!

That's all for now - do check back later - I've got some exciting news to share with you!  It's so hard to keep a secret :)

Easter eggs .....

... Good morning!  I've got an Easter card to share with you this morning.  I used a couple of challenges for the card:

• The Paper Players - PP134
• Colour Throwdown - CTD231

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Spring Baskets
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Crumb Cake; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress - Antique Linen
Dies: Spellbinders - Nested Eggs (S4-264); Die-namics - Fishtail Flags Layers Stax
Accessories:  SU Design Paper - Melon Mambo, So Saffron; SU - Everyday Enchantment DP - Lucky Limeade; Promarkers - Carmine, Pear Green, Pastel Yellow, Khaki, Pastel Beige, Warm Grey 1; SU Markers - Melon Mambo, So Saffron; White lustre card from stash

I really like the sketch - it has so many possibilities and those colours are so fresh and spring-like; both are just right for an Easter card, .  I started off by cutting several fishtail flags in patterned papers and attaching them to the card.  I stamped the basket and eggs onto white card and then used my dies to cut the egg shape.  I coloured the images with Promarkers.  While the egg was still in the die, I added a touch of colour to define the shape.  I stamped the bow onto a piece of Melon Mambo DP, cut it out and attached it to the basket.  I used warm grey 1 to highlight the basket of eggs.  I used my spritzer tool and marker pens to create the spatter pattern.  I stamped the sentiment in Crumb Cake and finished off by attaching the Easter egg with dimensional tape.  A clean, simple Easter card and reasonably flat so will go in the post okay!

I managed to wrench my back yesterday morning while shovelling the snow from the front door step.  I was silly, I tried to lift a very large shovel of wet snow and just pulled a muscle.  Well, I suppose it's a good excuse not to shovel any more snow!!!  I wish!  That's all for now - I hope to be back later today with another of my Easter card collection!  See you soon.