Of Cats, Mice, Tea, and Harlequins

The Harlequin Games card is one I've been planning for some time, finally made last week. The bg stamp is SU Print Pattern, the Harlequin is a bonus pattern from the February/March 2007 issue of Stampers' Sampler magazine, and the "inchies" are CS Designs digital stamps, "Harlequin Images", and "Solitaire".

The teapot was done for a challenge by the group, ATC Artists, "Tea with Royalty", in honor of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine. I was a bit cheeky in using Alice in Wonderland images!

The other cards are ATCs, made for ATC Artist swaps with the themes, "Cats" and "Mouse House". Being a House Mouse stamps nut, I used those images instead of creating two ATCs of mice houses. The last two ATCs were made to make up for my mistake. I just had to make a story of these last, with one lucky mouse making a friend of a cat, and the other cleverly escaping through the "roof" of his house.

Nature's Chef

 The summer solstice is fast approaching, and yet the season has just begun here. The golden days of summer slip through our fingers faster than our youth.
Fripon, on the chaise longue, and Rascal, sunbathing, take advantage of every moment of these lazy days. I follow their example and spend as much time as possible outdoors. Breakfast on my balcony is a special treat in summer. There's a special quiet in the morning, a morning peace, broken only by birdsong, and, occasionally, the garbage truck.
I dug out a poem I wrote in the days when I was almost as young as morning:

Nature’s Chef

Summer takes each
Fresh new day and
Toasts it golden brown,
Then cools it
With the breath of night,
Serves it on platters
Of memory.

Butterflies and Helicopters

Yesterday, from my balcony, I witnessed the takeoff of hundreds of little "helicopters"; the winged seeds of the maple trees that flank my balcony. Every time a gust of wind shook the trees, whirling, dancing seeds took off to find welcoming earth to settle into.
I had recently watched a documentary on Monarch Butterflies, who winter in Mexico, and migrate in groups of thousands, making a journey seemingly impossible for such delicate creatures. The seedlings, too, are delicate, and not all land in a nurturing place.

If such fragile creatures dare impossible journeys with no visible help or encouragement, what can I not accomplish with friends, family and faith to support me!

The project in these pictures is one I've been at least a couple of years getting to. I used a kit from CardKeepers http://cardkeepers.com/wp/ which I covered with cs and stamped images. Now I don't risk having the cards I've received in trade or as RAKs get damaged. Having them easily on hand means I've got another source of inspiration.
Whatever you do today, I wish you success.



                                                                                 

Asian Squares and Oriental Darlings

It's 64F this morning, and another sunny, near-windless day is announcing itself. Cliché or not, mornings, especially beautiful ones, always make me feel as if anything is possible. What I failed at, or failed to do yesterday can be a triumph today.
A sparrow just alighted on my window tree and chirped at me! Possibilities, possibilities! If I could bottle mornings to inhale in moments of discouragement...!
This card was inspired by a great CSDesigns challenge at Papercraft Planet, Darlings of the Orient. Chris Stern of CSD is celebrating the launch of her latest digi stamps, Asian Squares, and challenges us to use any square--or squared--Asian image as the focal point of an art project. Take a look at what members of the design team have come up with: http://www.papercraftplanet.com/group/csdesigns/forum/topics/cs-designs-darlings-of-the
My Oriental Darling is Stampington's Puccini's Muse, and she's stamped in SU Cranberry Crisp. If you saw my last two posts, you know I'm on a Cranberry roll!
The little butterflies are from CSDesigns digital stamp collection, Itty Bitties Butterflies, and are watercolored with Sparkling H2Os by Lumenarte. The sentiment is also a CSD digital stamp. I love combining digital with material stamps!
I hope your morning is off to as great a start as mine, whatever the weather.

Craft Stamper Designer's Choice 2

It's a glorious morning here, and I'm taking a mid-morning coffee break with a friend in a couple of hours, so this day is beginning very well, indeed!
Yesterday, I posted a card with colors based on the "Designer's Palette" in the May issue of Craft Stamper magazine. Before you ask, no, I don't get a commission, free stamps or anything else from the magazine for mentioning it; I just like to give credit where credit is due, and also, perhaps point others to creative ideas. The palette in the article was burgundy, cream and coffee. I didn't have any burgundy ink pads, so I used SU Cranberry Crisp. I used Cocoa from Color Box and SU Very Vanilla for the other two inks and liked the combination so much that I've made another card using the same color theme. The cs is SU Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa. The lovely Geisha is Stampington's The Calligraphy Robe. The calligraphy sentiments are SU, from Kanji and Dream Garden. The ribbon is also SU, but I can't think of the name right now, and probably never will.
The Geisha and I wish for you a day filled with tranquility, harmony, love and creative dreams.

Each day, a little beauty...

The French sentiment on this card, translated, is; "Each day, life offers a little beauty." Sometimes, we have to look hard to find that beauty, and this rainy, windy, and cool spring and summer do challenge me to look hard!
The idea for this card came from the May 2011 issue of the British publication, Craft Stamper. There's always a small, free clear stamp attached to the cover, and inside, examples of art made using the free stamp. The magazine is offering a free, down-loadable e-zine; check it out here: http://www.craftstamper.com/ezine/
It was mainly the color combo and the bird stamp used on the sample card which inspired me. The article, "Designer's Palette," called for burgundy pigment ink and "coffee colored dotted embossed cs". I got out my SU Cranberry Crisp dye pad and my Color Box Cocoa pigment pad for the stamps, and used SU Very Vanilla cs with no layers.  I also used a scrap of SU Close to Cocoa to layer the sentiment.
The bird and eggs are from the SU Nature Walk set, and the sentiment is taken from SU Sérénité. The background stamp is SU French Script. I loaded the bird and egg stamps with VersaMark and  Cranberry Crisp, embossed with clear ep, then overstamped with the French Script in Cocoa.
Hope you find this adds a bit of beauty to your day.

"I Know why the caged bird sings"

 This card uses the Technique Junkies Telescoping Card technique. The base cs--dark blue here--is supposed to be scalloped, but I don't have a scalloped-edge or other large circle die, so I used a Fiskars Circle template. The stamps are from the SU set Nature Walk. The sentiment is computer-generated. I took the quote from a Maya Angelou poem. The cage and bird suggested the quote.  My bird has slipped his cage.

3D Embellishment

This card is a response to the 3D117 challenge on Papercraft Planet here: http://papercraftplanet.net/2011/06/07/3d117-challenge-creating-3d-stamped-embellishments/

The cs is SU Regal Rose, the embossing envelope is SU Manhattan Flower and the butterfly is the same one used on the Solitaire Mysterious Butterfly card in a previous post. It's made by Stamps Happen. I colored it with Sparkling H2Os. The face on the butterfly's wings makes it one of my favorite stamps.
I think I'll get out more buttefly stamps for more of these 3D embellishments; they offer so many possibilities!

Mystery and Illusion

I made this ATC for the CS Designs challenge, Mystery of Imagination, on Papercraft Planet, here: http://www.cs-designs.blogspot.com/
The butterfly stamp is a favorite, and the masked face beneath it is a CSDesigns digi stamp, Solitaire, Mysterious Butterfly. The sentiment is also a CSD digi stamp. Solitaire is colored with Sparkling H2Os.

Balloons, Balloons!

The stamp and cs on this card are from the Gina K Stamp TV set, Vintage Chic. I used Gina K's card--video how-to here: http://stamptv.ning.com/ to inspire my version. The ink is SU Lovely Lilac. The designer bg was originally white and black; I used the direct to paper technique with SU Lovely Lilac to color it. I didn't have the Sakura Stardust pens Gina sparkled her image with, so I used glue and glitter for the white part of the dress and balloons.

The second card is an ATC. I used the same Vintage Chic image, with the same colors as the House Mouse beach card in the previous post.

Have a great day, and happy crafting!

Two Challenges with One Card

This card answers the CST Weekly Challenge #4 to use these colors or an aproximation of them: Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso, and white.  

It also fits the "Make a summer card" challenge on the Creative Cuttlebuggers site. To me, a lake, the St. Lawrence River or the sea are perfect places for a summer vacation. 

The stamp is House Mouse Catchin' the Rays.

Acrylic Emboss

These cards were made with the Acrylic Emboss technique, from Technique Junkies' "Emboss or Die CD",  which can be purchased here: http://www.techniquejunkies.com/

More Faux Tiles

I just had to do another Faux Tiles card! The background image is the companion to the FT1 stamp from QuikArt. Foreground image is Small Face Frame by Hampton Art Stamps. Ink use: SU Pacific Point and Lovely Lilac.

Faux Tiles

This card, uses the Faux Tiles technique from the Technique Junkies Newsletter.The card base is SU Marigold Morning, the cs for image and background layer are SU Whisper White. The bg stamp is  QuikArt #9858, which is a collage stamp. The ink is SU River Rock and Marigold Morning.

Sea-ing

The sea is one of my favorite themes, and I've used it on these two cards. On the first, "Under the Sea", the background is done with the Cuttlebug embossing folder, "D'vine Swirls". The little mermaids asleep in a seashell are stamped (Stamp Happy, and the one at top is from the CS Designs digital "Babushka" collection. Her name is Anastasia, which means I have another card to enter in this month's Alphabet Challenge on CS Designs Challenge Blog; http://www.doodleartifacts.blogspot.com/

When I saw the swirls and bubbles on Anastasia, I knew she came from the sea. I'll have to challenge myself now to find other water play for her!

The second card, "Near the Sea", is for last week's CST (Canadian Stamp Talk) layout challenge. I used the D'vine Swirl folder again for the bg; I love it when I can hit two themes with one sheet of cardstock! Our list mom borrowed the challenge from The Sweet Spot; http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/2011/05/sss108-may-14.html
Now, I need to check out this week's challenge on CST!

Nature Girl Babushka

Another ATC in answer to a challenge on the CSD Challenge Blog site. This one was a color challenge, to use any shade of brown, yellow or green; Nature Challenge. I used Pasha, one of CSD's digistamps I recently got. To see what others have done with the challenge, and for instructions on how to participate, go to http://www.doodleartifacts.blogspot.com/

CS Designs Challenge

This ATC was inspired by the Alphabet Challenge at CS Designs Challenge Blog http://doodleartifacts.blogspot.com/2011/05/cs-designs-surprise-weekly-challenge.html
My "A" is for Asian. The two smaller images are from a digital stamp set from CS Designs, "Asian Dominoes 1". I've had it for some time but, like a lot of things in my stash, haven't used. The geisha is from the SU set, Dream Gardens.
I'm planning on playing with my new CS Designs digistamps, "Little Babushkas", so stay tuned!

Three Things from My Stash

This card is inspired by the Stamping in Paradise challenge make a card using three neglected things from one's stash. One of my three things is invisible; The text is a sticker (Thing 1) I put on a round piece of chipboard (Thing 2), thus making the chipboard disappear. Thing 3 is the cat stamp, which I haven't used in a long time. You can see the great cards inspired by this challenge here: http://scrapbookersparadise.blogspot.com/2011/05/playing-in-paradise-challenge-15.html

Golden Geisha

I recently discovered the great papercraft site, Gingersnap Creations, and made this card for their Red and Gold challenge.
 Card details
cardstock: SU Real Red and Basic Black; Stamps: SU Dream Gardens; Technique: VersaMark, gold ep; border done with gold pen, SU rhinestone brads.
Take a look at the great Gingersnap Creations red and gold art here: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/gc100-color-challenge-red-and-gold.html

Spring Has Sprung?

The question mark in the title is due to the uncertainty of our Québec spring; for every warm day, there seems to be five cold, rainy and windy ones!
A Yahoo! group I belong to, CST (Canadian Stamp Talk) issued a challenge to use ribbon on a card. It was a challenge for me, indeed, since I hardly ever think of using ribbon!
Background paper from Cornish Heritage Farms, stamped with SU Linen, which doesn't show up well in this scanned photo. Card base is SU Night of Navy. Ink:  SU Wild Wasabi. I used Michelle Zindorf's technique of loading my image and text stamps first with VersaMark, then Wild Wasabi, stamping and then heat embossing with clear ep. The text stamp is Hero Arts Spring, the image is Stampabilities That Look.  
No matter how carefully I measure and line up the cs when attaching layers, something happens at the last second and...wonky layers. Sigh.

You Only Live Once!

This card was made for the StampTV Free for all Friday DIY background challenge. The challenge was to make your own stamped background for a card.Stamps: SU Fine Lace, Stampabilities That Look, SU Fifth Avenue Floral; Ink: SU Lavendar Lace; CS: SU Lavendar Lace, Very Vanilla. The black line is not part of the card.
This is my first time participating in a StampTV challenge. To see the other entries, follow this link: http://stamptv.ning.com/photo/photo/search?q=STVFRIJH1

Happy Valentine's Day!

H

Here's one last Valentine. Stamps are SU, cs also.

Valentines Redux

I'm on a roll...at least where making Valentines are concerned. Here are the latest:

 I found the technique for the paper rose on the card above on someone's blog but forgot to "favorite" the web address. Two pieces of cs in coordinating colors are circle-punched together, spiral-cut, rolled tightly and glued on the card.

Valentines!

Inkstainers challenge to make non-red Valentines inspired me. I used Cuttlebug and SU  embossing folders, plus a little stamping.

Not dead--yet!

I suppose I've lost everyone who ever followed (?) this blog and have been checking in vain to see if I've posted anything in 2010. I'm still getting my stamping/library/computer room fixed up and put in order, and my stamping stuff is mostly unreachable. That's my excuse, and I stand by it.
For my older granddaughter's February birthday, I valiantly dug out enough CS, a Cuttlebug folder, embossing powder, and made a card. Here it is.