Share the Joy

This little Lawn Fawn set is one of my favorites!  The ornament is embossed in gold, and I gave the background a sparkling mist from my Radiant Rain spray.



I make the background paper for the ornament and you can read more about how I did it on my guest designer post over at Creative Imaginations.

Here's the Lawnscaping Challenge- Make it Shine

Anything goes over at Simon Says Stamp!

Since this was a quick card to make, it is going in the CASual Friday Dashing Through the Holidays,

and the Pretty Pink Posh 10 Minute Craft Dash.
We had a really great Christmas spending time with my son and his girlfriend, and are now expecting a big snowstorm to arrive in New England tonight.  I hope you were able to spend time with the ones you love.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you have time to leave a comment, I will be sure to visit your blog and look around.

Owl I Want for Christmas

 

I made this cute little owl card for my guest designer blog posts over at Creative Imaginations.  You can read more about all the projects here.  Here is a close up of this cute pair!  They have stickles on their pom poms.

 I used this Retro Sketch turned on it's side, and I am also playing along with the Paper Players- CAS with a snowflake, and Lawnscaping-Make it Shine.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out my guest designer posts.  Thanks for all of your kind comments.

Guest Designer at Creative Imaginations!

I am so excited to announce that I am a guest designer at the Creative Imaginations blog!.  If you have been reading my blog you know that I love all their products, especially the Luminarte Twinkling H2O's, and that many of my cards are made using them.  I met Cheryl Mezzetti at a class last summer, and when she saw the cards I had designed on my blog, she invited me to be a guest blogger during the week.  This is the card from my first post, please go over and take a look and leave me a comment.

 Details are all over at Creative Imaginations, the background is painted with the Twinks.  Here is a close up of the bottom of the card.  I covered the sentiment with my new favorite Distress Stickles dry glitter (I love that stuff, and I am not much of a glitter girl), it is very sparkly in person.

Thanks for stopping by!  I love to read your comments.

12 Tags of Christmas

There is so much inspiration out there in blogland this week!  I've been loving the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist over at The CLASSroom.   Each day there is a new tag posted and they are all so different!

 I used this tag by Claudine Helmuth and this inspiration photo from the Shabby Tea Room #144 Shabby Chic to create a non-traditional colored Christmas tag.  I love the soft pastel colors.

I painted the background with acrylic paint, and then sprayed it with some Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist before I layered the old sheet music and washi tape.  The ornaments were embossed and a little

glitter was added with Stickles.  Here's a close up!

 

I am adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge - What'sYour Favorite?    I love spray inks and stickles.  I am also trying out a new challenge called Dragon's Dream Tag It On-Christmas.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have time to leave a comment or to follow my blog!

 

 

Snow People

This looks like a fun bunch of snowpeople! My favorite is the snow lady who has a sprig of mistletoe hanging over her head.   It was a quick and easy card to make, and I love the embossed snowflakes.  Two challenges are looking for Snowmen cards this week, Crazy 4 Challenges and Paper Players.  I am also entering in Less is More-Red and Green.

Thanks for stopping by, I love to read your comments.

You Color My World

I'm trying a new challenge, Runway Inspired Challenge, that has beautiful fashion photos for inspiration.  When I saw the colors, I wanted to use a few stamps from a Unity Stamp set that I got a while ago.  The card base is colored with a spray ink in blue, and I paper pieced the paint bucket from another piece I had sprayed a while ago.  I love the look of washi tape on cards, but I find it hard to use in my designs, but I gave it a go today.  I flipped the second piece of tape around to make the diamonds, similar to the design on the back of the dress.

Here's the inspiration photo, I don't know how those women walk in those heels!

Since it's Friday, I am also linking up the Friends with Flair at Unity.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you leave a comment, I will be sure to stop in and check out your blog!

Each Snowflake

I played along with the Paper Players using their sketch this week, and came up with this card.

The scallop edges are from my new Tim Holtz die, they are a bit uneven and funky, something a little different than other scallop punches.    I love the sentiment, it's one of those Innie and Outie stamps that has 2 sentiments on it, one for the front and one for the inside. 

Thanks for stopping by!



Sparkling Holiday

I've been playing with some snowflake stamps again, and I made some tags for a swap that I take part in.  The instructions were to make it sparkly, and so I piled on the glitter!



 

 

The background was stamped, sponged and spritzed.  I used a Tim Holtz label die cut for the sentiment, and shortened the edges to leave space around the label.                                           

  

I am entering this in several challenges-

Crazy 4 Challenges "Put a Bow on It"

CASual Friday- "Winter Blues"

Artistic Stamper- Anything Goes

and

Less is More -Bling

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I love to read your comments!

                                 







Snowflakes

 

 

Don't you just love that huge snowflake image?  I have used it alot over the years.  After I stamped the snowflakes, I sponged over them with my distress inks, and sprinkled a little water on to add some splots here and there.  I had that beautiful novelty yarn left over from when I dabbled in weaving, and thought it picked up the darker colors on the card.  The mini cookie cutter is from Dress It Up.  Here's a close up.  

I am entering this in a few challenges-
 Less is More- Hardware and CASual Fridays Winter Blues , and The Artistic Stamper- Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you will have time to leave a comment, I love to read them all, and I will stop in to visit you.

So Grateful

I used this Retro Sketch as inspiration to make a card with my new leaf die cuts and woodgrain embossing folder.  I stamped each leaf with a background stamp after cutting them out, and instead of making a paper scallop I used some scallop tulle.

I am also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge- Thanksgiving/Thank You cards, and 52 Card Pick-up.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can leave a comment.

A House Card and WOYWW

This is how my desk looks today.  I was asked to sell some of my cards and tags at the upcoming Bizarre Bazaar at The Art Garden, a local community art center where I take mixed media classes.  I was so relieved to find that I had lots left over from last year.  The tags are in the basket, and next to the basket is a fork.  Are you wondering why I have a fork on my work area?  It's because I found a video demonstration on how to tie a bow by using a fork to hold the ribbon in place as it's being formed into a bow.  The bows came out great.  There are also some cards I've been designing for an upcoming card class that I'm teaching, and at the very top is a card that I am linking up to Less is More's One Layer Challenge with the theme "Houses", and the Paper Players Color Challenge #121 using Old Olive, More Mustard and Bravo Burgundy.  Here's a close up.

  If you want to see more interesting spaces, check out Julia's Stamping Ground Blog, it's a fun place!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can leave a comment.  I'll be sure to visit you!

Barb

Welcome Home

When I saw that Less is More is having a one layer challenge with the theme "Houses" I was inspired to take out a new B Line Design stamp with a lovely purple martin house on it.  My friend has a house like this in her backyard, and the birds fly in and out and swoop over the field.                         

 I used my Twinking H2O's to paint in the little scene.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you will leave a comment or consider following me.  I hope to have 100 followers by the new year, when my blog will be 1 year old.

Happiest Birthday Easel Card

I've been wanting to try making an easel card with some of the framelits I got recently,  and had a chance to do it this week.  I used the colors in the Tuesday Trigger- Fantasy in Fall over at the Moxie Fab World.

I love this color combination-

Here's a close up of the front, it has a little bling from the pearls and stickles, and I cut out a few of the flowers to give them dimension.

 This is how it stands up-

it folds back on itself and tucks into another piece of paper.  It looks a lot more complicated than it is to put together.

I am also entering this in-  CASology-Orange.

Thanks for stopping by, I would love to hear from you!

A Cat, a Cake and WOYWW

As I was working on some cards, who should come along but Tucker, and plunks himself down right on my papers.  He is laying down on one of my new stamps sets,  and some pretty patterned paper.  A few minutes later he tries to drink out of my water jar for my watercolors.  He has been inside more now that it is cold, so I image he will show up in my WOYWW photos more frequently.  If you are wondering why I am showing you my cat on my workdesk, it's because it's Wednesday, and lots of creative people show off where they work on Julia's blog The Stamping Ground.  Have a look around, it's fun.

Celebrated a birthday this week, and this is a shot of the delicious cake that my husband got for me.  Yummy!

 

Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a comment if you can.  I will be sure to return the visit!

Fall Leaves

Well Hurricane Sandy took care of the few leaves that were left on the trees this week!  There is such a contrast now from a few days ago, all I see are bare trees,  and I miss all that color, so I am still playing with some leaf stamps.  The background strip of dark paper was made with Ranger Alcohol Inks.  I had never used them before, and I love the marbled effect that they made on the glossy paper.  The leaves were painted in with my Twinking H2O watercolors.  I followed this Less is More sketch, and decided to leave a sentiment off.

 This would make a great card for a guy, so it's going in CAS-ual Friday's Masculine Project, Inspired By Challenge using this photo,

 

The Artistic Stamper's Anything Goes, and  Orange You Glad It's Friday photo blog.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to all of my new followers!

Believe in Yourself

I was inspired by all the beautiful artwork over at Simon Says Stamp and Show to get out my Wendy Vecchi stamps again and use her striking woman image.  The background was made with Distress Inks in several of my favorite colors after I stamped her and masked off the image.  The water splashes make such a cool effect with the Distress Inks.

School has been cancelled for tomorrow because Hurricane Sandy is supposed to hit us in the middle of the night with high winds and heavy rains.  We're hoping we don't lose any power, but chances are we will.  We've got extra water, flashlights and plenty of food, so we should be O.K.

I am also putting this in Make It Pretty Monday.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I hope you have time to leave a comment so I can hop over and check out your blog, too. 

A Swap and WOYWW

Here's a little sneak peek at some ornaments I am making for a Christmas ornament swap.
I used Red Lead's old fashioned ornament shape and a fun vintage image and stamps.  I remember as a kid flying down a hill like this on my wooden sled while  I steered with my feet.  These need to be mailed off by next week, so that's why they are on my workdesk today.  This project brought back happy memories for me,  I am always so amazed at the power of art to invoke feelings!  I'll post the finished project after I send these off.

 If you want to see more crafty spaces, check in with Julia over at The Stamping Ground.
Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you have a chance, I'd love to visit your space, too.

Halloween Moon

This card was inspired by Michelle Zindorf and her workshop that I recently attended.  She is fantastic at sponging and using a brayer, and I was lucky enought to attend her class.  I  heat embossed the stamped image in black and punched a circle out of cardstock to use as a mask.  The moon was sponged, and then I covered it with the circle part of the mask andsponged the purple for the night sky.  The tulle ribbon gives a little extra texture.

I used the colors from the Color Q Challenge #160.  I've never played along with their challenge before.  Crazy 4 Challenges is using a similar color palette of Orange/Black/Purple, so I am also playing along there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Treat Holder

This fun little treat holder was made with a Stampin' Up die and some halloween paper.   I punched out a spooky skeleton, and put it on a rosette.  Behind it is a little fringe made with tissue paper that was spritzed with spray inks.  I added a spooky saying and a spider with glowing eyes to finish it off.  A mini-size candy bar will fit right inside!

This is going in Crazy for Challenges- Treat Holder, Anything But a Card-Halloween or Fall Colors, and Simon Says Stamp- Eerie Inspiration, based on the photo here.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I would love to have you leave a comment!

Simple Pleasures

This card was masked off and sponged with distress inks, and then splattered with a little water.  I love the way the sponged area looks.  My little birds fit in the Less is More Challenge this week-"Wings" and "One Layer".  I will definitely use this technique more often, it makes a pretty card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall photos and WOYWW

My workdesk has been my computer this week, editing some photos that I took on Scott Kelby's  Worldwide Photo Walk Day last Saturday.  My photography teacher organized this local walk around Greenfield, MA, and about 20 people took part.  One place we visited was a garden after the first frost.

Hope you like these photos, I always think milkweek plants are fascinating, and the hydrangea are a beautiful   blush color right now.  Be sure to stop at Julia's Stamping Ground to see other crafty spaces.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have time to leave a comment!

All My Love

I used some new Ali Edwards stamps to make this clean and simple card.  The heart background is from a leftover piece of paper that I had sprayed with some spray inks.  This was another quick card to make.  I hope you like it!
I am linking this up to CAS-ual Fridays CFC71:Clean and Simple with a Heart and Make It Pretty Monday over at the Dedicated House.

Thanks for stopping by!

You are Amazing

Love this canning jar from Unity Stamps, and the lovely sentiment from them, too.  I can think of many of my girlfriends and nieces that this card would be perfect for.  It would also be nice for a man to give to the woman he loves.  I painted in the roses with my Twinkling H20's and they gave the bouquet suble shading.  I love flowers arranged in canning jars, casual and chic.

I am linking this up to-
CAS-ual Friday For the Girls
Less is More- Love and Marriage
Moxie Fab World- Jars of Joy
and the Unity Friends with Flair

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment if you have time!

Sending Love

This is a fun and simple card to make.  The heart was stamped, then inked with distress inks and a little Smooch Spritz,  cut out and popped on the card.  Done!  I gave it a little bling for fun.

This is for A Blog Named Hero - White Out, Schmite Out, a challenge to start out with only white paper, Less is More- Love and Marriage, and Simon Says Stamp- Glimmer and Sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you have time, I'll be sure to visit your blog, too!

Autumn Tag and WOYWW

Today my workdesk has an almost finished tag for Tag Tueday, and a few other goodies.  The tag is still a work in progress, I'm not sure if I am going to use this one or start another.  Maybe I'll mount it on a darker tag, and see if it is more eye catching.  The cute little Halloween ticket set is from Red Lead, and the "Gypsy Witch" forture telling cards are from a vintage set my sister sent me.  The graphics are great on them, and I'm sure I will find a way to use them in my art work.  Here's a close up.  Fun find!

If you want to see more peeks into other crafter's workspaces, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and take a look around.

Thanks for stopping by, and for all of your lovely comments,  keep them coming!