Butterfly Fairy and WOYWW #143

WOYWW #143

I just finished up some tags yesterday for the Tag Tuesday Inspiration, so there is  not much on my workdesk today, just a few stamped images that need to be mounted on patterned paper.  Those will get finished up and dropped off at a few of the stores that carry my cards locally. 

I've been taking lots of photos for my Photo Assignment Class and incorporated this photo from the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory onto the tag I made for Tag Tuesday.  I love the contrast of the butterflies against the white of the statue,  and how the plant curves around the little fairy and frames her.  Check out my post from yesterday to see the 2 tags I made.

Here's our boy Tucker, laying right across the patterned paper next to the paper cutter.  He loves to be where the action is.  He was no where around last week, but is right next to me today.

Check out all the other interesting workspaces at Julia's Stamping Ground, and see what all the crafty gals are up to!  I hope to visit lots of blogs this week.

Have a creative week!  Thanks for stopping by.

Books

Two Tag Tuesday

I have a few tags to share with you today, so this post is a little longer that usual.  This week I am playing along with Tag Tuesday, and the theme is "Books"  As a teacher, and avid reader, this is a subject that is close to my heart.  I spent many happy hours reading as a child, and remember walking the half a mile or so up to the town library by myself to check out books when I was about 8 years old. 

The first tag has a school photo of my Dad on it.  He looks like he is about 10 or 11 years old, and is holding a book.  As soon as I saw the week's theme, I knew I wanted to use this photo.  I stamped the tag with a clock stamp, and sprayed a little Smooch Spritz on in with the same tones as the ink.  I found an older Stamping Up sentiment stamp that has many words that I associate with books and reading, and I stamped that above the photo.  I knew I wanted the word "read" on it somewhere, but I couldn't find my alphabet stamps, so I stamped "dream" again from the sentiment stamp and cut it apart.  I like the way it looks, I feel like it fits because it is printed with the same font as on the big stamp.

The second tag includes my photo of a statue of a fairy reading.  I found her at the butterfly conservatory last weekend, and loved the way the two butterfies were resting on her.  Their bright colors really pop against the muted colors around them.   I imagined that she was engrossed in her book and enjoying the solitude of reading quietly in the garden, so I used part of two different stamps to write "Treasure Solitude". 

Check out all the other great tags at Tag Tuesday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks a Latte!

I have been wanting to use my stamp sets with the coffee and tea cup images this week, and when I saw the CAS-ual Friday challenge of making a card with a pun, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  The tablecloth patterned paper is perfect for this stamp set with lots of coffee cups by TPC Studio.  It reminds me of the tablecloths people used  in the '50 and '60, so I had to use some retro colors on the cup to go along with that era.  I have lots of "latte" sayings, and sometimes put this type of sentiment on cards that I sell at a local coffee shop.

I stamped the cup twice, first on the off-white cardstock, and again on a piece of scrap cardstock.  I painted the one on the scrap, cut it out, and mounted it with pop dots to give it dimension. 

I am entering this in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC 41 and the Skipping Stone Design Sketch Challenge #116.  I hope I win some Skipping Stone Stamps, I don't have any, but they look great.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heart and Home

It was a busy, crafty week!  I made quite a few cards, tried to take some "painterly photos", and attended a scrapbooking crop at one of my favorite local scrapbook stores.  I hadn't done any scrapbook layouts since the summer, so it was fun to get back into it.

This is one of the projects I made this week. 

This cute little house stamp came from my Unity january Kit of the Month.  I stamped it on patterned paper, and mounted it on a patterned background.  The heart was stamped on paper I had spritzed with my Adirondack Color Wash spray.  I am entering this in the Unity February Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge- the sketch is shown below, and also the Unity February Heart Challenge.  This challenge was to use a heart in the design that was not red or pink.

I think this stamp will have lots of uses.   It could be used for an anniversary card, or a card for congratulations on a new home.  It could also be used on a scrapbook page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunsets and Stamps

WOYWW #142

Today my workdesk is piled with new stamps and dies!  I just got back last night, and haven't even had a chance to really look these over, but I am excited to try out some intricate dies and stamps from a new (to me) company, Red Lead Paperworks.  Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, I got up early, and it was still dark, so I had to use my Ott light, and the photo is grainy.

We went off on a little trip this weekend to Clinton, Ct., and stayed overnight at a friend's house right at the coast.  I managed to get down to the beach just as the sun was going down, and snapped a few photos.  The light was so soft and beautiful, and I loved the vapor trail the airplane was making in the clear sky. 

The next day we enjoyed exploring the area's antique shops, and then stopped at a big scrapbooking store, The Papercraft Club House in Westport.  I picked up a few stamps there, and then discovered that right down the street was another store that specialized in rubber stamps.  It's called Beautiful Impressions, and it was great!   They had the largest variety of rubber stamps I have ever come across.  And yes, that is another bird stamp, just had to get it, it says "nest" on it, and I thought it would make a cute card for someone with a new home.  Since we are on vacation this week, I should be able to get some creative time in on this workdesk.

Check out all the other neat creative spaces over at Julia's Stampin Ground.

Thanks for stopping by!

Button Collection and WOYWW #141

WOYWW#141
While I was working on my photo assignment last week shooting  pictures of a "group or collection", I came across this great collection of buttons in Metaphor Yarns, a fiber store next to my friend's fabric shop.  I got so inspired by it that I got my button jars together to see what I had in my collection. 

Another friend and I started to sort them out, and we were amazed by the variety in the jars.  As you can see, we got some sorted by color, and put some of the unusual ones together, but I have a lot more to sort.  I use them frequently on cards, and I had been wanting to glue them down on to a heart shape, similar to some I had seen in some cardmaking magazines.  This tag happened to be on the table, left over from my Tag Tuesday post, so I cut a small heart, put it on top and began to fill it with buttons.  I am planning on using little pearls to fill in some of the empty spaces.  It may not end up on this tag, it may go on a canvas, it's a work in progress.

Stop by the Stampin Ground to see other interesting work spaces.
Have a great week, would love to have you leave a comment!

Brighter World

Finding things around the house to use in papercrafting is always a bonus because you can feel like you're getting multiple uses out of an object.  When I saw the Around the House Challenge on the Moxie Fab World Blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to use.  I'm know for winning frequently at raffles, and last year I won a basket filled with goodies for baking from the local school PTO raffle.  One of the items in the basket was a package from Ikea with several decorative cake plate liners.  These plastic round disks come in 4 different designs, and they go on top of the cake plate before the cake is placed on it, similar to a doily.  At the time that I won them, I could not really imagine using them, since my cake making skills are somewhat limited.  I kept them, though, because they reminded me of the masking sheets that many paper companies are selling to use with spray inks.  They only have a design on the edge, but they are nice and thick, so I decided to give it a go this week, and got out my Smooch sprays and tried them out on solid and patterned paper.

I loved how the yellow and pink looked sprayed over the hearts,  it reminded me of a sunrise, and I found the perfect sentiment to go with it from Ali Edwards.  It's a simple one layer card, but I think it works because of the bold graphics and bright colors. 

The other card has a very different look, it is soft and subtle, with pastels, patterned paper, pearls and a flower.  The fairy was on the patterned paper already, and she got covered up a little by the spritz.  I dyed the lace to match by spritzing with the same color Smooch spray.  

I love this technique, if you've never given it a try, you should!  It's easy, and each one comes out differently. 

These are the cake plate liners.  I couldn't find them on the Ikea website, so I can't provide the link, but your local scrapbook store might carry a similar product.  Don't worry, I won't be serving cake on them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hearts

While I was checking out all the interesting blogs from WOYWW last week, I found a great site called Tag Tuesday.  Every week there is a new suggestion for a tag to make, and artists from all over post their interpretation of the week's challenge.  I thought I would give it a try this week, because although I like to make tags, I haven't in a while.  This was just this inspiration I needed to get going again on some tags.  This weeks theme is "Hearts".  I started out with some patterned paper, and used some leftover hearts from some of the cards I was making last week, and some PinkPaislee (MIST)-A-BLES scallop muslin ribbon.  I sprayed the ribbon with pink Smooch Spritz Spray, and then gave it a spritz of gold Perfect Pearls mist to tone it down a bit.  The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Company, and the ribbon is a leftover from a delicious box of chocolates.  The hearts are painted and covered with stickles.  It was fun to get back into making tags, I'm sure I'll be making more over the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love Birds

Crazy4Challenges-C4C123

This stamp set comes from Unity Stamp Company, and has two little birds facing each other on a background of newsprint.  That type of background seems like a popular trend this year, it has popped up in lots of stamp designs by several different companies.  After painting the birds with my Twinkling H2O watercolors,  I tried mounting them directly on the doily, but that seemed a little too plain.   I went through my stash of stamps and found a Hero Arts Stamp frame that was the perfect size for the bird's oval.  I stamped the frame on pink cardstock, then layered the birds over it.  The seam binding ribbon and sentiment at the bottom finished it off.  I used this sketch challenge, from Crazy4Challenges-C4C123,  for inspiration.   I've been doing more sketch challenges since I began my blog, and I am starting to enjoy them.  It is a different way of designing than I am used to doing, as I typically start with a stamped image, choose coordinating paper, and then create a layout.

Since it has patterened paper on the background, I am also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Patterned Paper Challenge that I saw over at Lily Pad Cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lovely Roses and WOYWW #140

WOYWW# 140

My work area has often been my light filled windowsill over the last few days.  I am in the second week of my "Photo Assignment" class, and our work this week was to photograph a collection or group of things.  I have lots of "collections" of things around the house (I admit it, I am a collector!), and had some ideas in mind.  Then my local florist shop, Fairview Gardens, offered a rose special- a dozen roses for $15.  I couldn't pass that up at this dreary time of year.   The colors were fantastic, and I chose a pale pink and a darker shade of rose.   After I had them for a few days, I realized that a small bunch on the windowsill would make a perfect "collection".  I just plopped them on the windowsill and shot my photo.  At class last night, my teacher suggested that there might be too much white space in the bottom corner.  I tried again today, but the roses are getting limp and the light was different.  I was thinking that if I made a card out of the original photo, I could stamp a sentiment or add text in that empty spot, and that might work to fill it up.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this little photographic experiment of mine.  

Of course Tucker was around, and I found him actually smelling the flowers on the table where he is not allowed to sit.  As soon as I grabbed the camera, he turned away, and then jumped down, guess he was not in a mood to model for a picture today.

Be sure to stop by Julia's at the Stamping Ground to see more workspaces.

Thanks for stopping by!



You Are My Heart

When I saw this stamp, I knew it would be perfect for a Valentine's Day card, and would also make a great anniversary card.    The font is one of my favorites, it fits so perfectly with the heart shape.  I was inspired to use cream, rose and brown after seeing several inspiration photos this week.  The stamp is from Unity, and I  just had to take out my Twinkling H2O's and watercolor in the heart with that beautiful magenta color to give it some shine.  I dressed up the corners with some pearls to give it a little bling. 

This is the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: Fancy Schmancy photo, don't those little treats look delicious?
I also entered the Lawnscaping Challenge #27, and the Ippity January 29th Love Challenge from Unity Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Painted Hearts

I love Tim Holtz products, and finally got a chance to try out one of his new stamp sets.  The hearts were painted in with Twinkling H2O's, and I used the colors in the Lily Pad challenge photo below as inspiration.  The sentiment says "When I want to see love defined I look at you". 

I entered this in the Lily Pad Card Virginia's View Challenge #1

Thanks for stopping by!

Something a Little Different and WOYWW

Instead of a card today, I am posting a photo that I took recently.  I have been taking some photography classes with a fantastic teacher, Beth Reynolds, over the last year.  I've learned how to take my DSLR camera off the automatic mode, and use some of those dials and buttons!  Her students are in a Facebook group, and in that group Beth posts weekly one word challenges.  This week's word was "cup".  As I was washing some beautiful china cups and saucers that I aquired recently (more on that later), I put them on the windowsill to dry, the sunlight hit them, and I saw my photo op.

I love how the gold is highlighted, and the reflection of the cups in the window.  This is Noritake china, wouldn't they be lovely to have a cup of tea in?  They are so light and delicate and translucent.  I found these at a new second hand store in the next town where the owner sells everything for $1!  Needless to say, I will be frequenting that store.

So my workdesk these last few days has not had anything happening on it, as I have been working quite a bit on the computer with some photos.  So what has Tuckercat been doing, you are wondering,  if he has not keeping me company by the craft table?  He's been snuggling up with his favorite golden retriever, Logan.

He loves that dog!

Thanks for looking.  I'd love to hear your comments.

Check out the other desks at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/