Pinned Post


Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday" challenge.


Please click HERE to join in "I Spy With My Little Eye" challenge.


Jul 23, 2016

Warm Wishes

It's been another very hot summer day and I made another Christmas card :-) I couldn't  help it...Mo Manning released this cute image a couple weeks ago and it was on sale for half price, so I bought it. Plus I got the perfecting pencils online coloring class for my birthday and I had lots of fun coloring up this cutie using the new techniques I learned in the class. Until now I have only used pencils with some sort of solvent, the burnishing technique, which I used here was new to me.


I really love how this turned out. It did take quiet some time and I didn't do all the coloring in one day, but it was very fun and relaxing.
Took the kids to the pool this afternoon, but when we came back I thought it was time for some "me" time, and I finally made a card using this image. 
Designer paper is by Bo Bunny and I sanded the edges of the paper lightly. A little snowflake stamp was used around the image and stickles glitter was added for some sparkle. Also used a Wink of Stella brush pen on the hat for a little shimmer, but as usual that is really hard to see in the photos. You kind of have to tilt the card to see the shimmer on the hat trim.
The little sentiment on the outside is from the set "Holiday Snippets", the set is  currently available in my Etsy shop. Another Christmas verse is stamped on the inside and I lightly decorated it with a few stamped snowflakes. 

The card was also just listed in my shop, if you are interested.

I am going to play along in Mo's Digital Challenge with this card...it's been really long since I played along there and so happy I finally got a chance to :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jul 18, 2016

Brushstroke Geranium

Hi everyone, Monday already again and time for a little Penny Black and More challenge inspiration. 
Did you play along yet? Don't miss your chance to win one of the wonderful prizes up for grabs. As always you may use any stamp manufacturer, just no digi stamps please. And don't forget you may enter up to 3 times for more chances to win. A really simple theme too so everyone can play along - anything goes!

For my card today I inked up the stamp Light Touch by Penny Black (I have this stamp available in my Etsy shop brand new if interested.
This card was really easy to make, I just used distress markers (pink and purple for the blooms and two shades of green for the leaves and stems) to color directly on the rubber. Lightly spritzed with water and then stamped onto winsor & newton watercolor paper. Did some more stamping using a music sheet stamp and honeycomb stencil and light blue ink. The sentiment is from the set Sprinkles & Smiles. Adhered to some dark gray designer paper and Stampin Up card stock.

Check out the great prizes we have this month:

From Penny Black




from Crafty Ribbons

and from
  

Hope you have a wonderful Monday and if you have a minute be sure to check out the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team made for the reminder post.



Jul 11, 2016

Sitting on a branch

Good morning, happy Monday :-)
This summer I challenged myself to organize all my cling mounted stamps.
Too many cling mounted stamps waiting on a laminated identification sheet so they can be properly sorted and stored... they seem to be taking over my craft area. I really had this project planned a long time ago but never really found the time, unfortunately I had to come to the decision to step down from my long time design team position at Whimsy Stamps to free up some time. I already miss the interaction with the Whimsy team and of course creating with the gorgeous stamps, but the extra time will really help me getting organized.
After getting through a stack of stamps, I decided to reward myself by spending some time actually card making. Love this cute stamp by Penny Black, and it's the first time I inked it up.

 The cute image has been colored using copic markers on xpress it blending card. Card was done in a CAS style, only embellishments are a button and twine and some wink of stella on the flowers. I also did some machine sewing around the edges.
Love how this card turned out and happy I finally have something new to add to my Etsy shop. You can check it out here


I am going to enter my card to the 7Kids college fund challenge where anything goes as long as you use something available at their shop. 
Well that is all I have for today, going to spend some more time working on laminating stamped image sheets for my stamps.  
Enjoy your day!!

Jul 6, 2016

Christmas In July and Some Vacation Photos

Yes, I know it's weird making Christmas cards when we have 90 degree weather, but I was checking out some challenges yesterday to help me get back to card making, and saw that Just For Fun Rubber Stamps is now having a monthly challenge. This month it's Christmas in July with a little bit of sparkle, and since I have a few of their gorgeous Christmas stamps, which I haven't used in a long time, I decided to play along.
It's my first time making a card in over a month. I have been taking a blogging break to spend some time with family and I am including some vacation photos below, if you'd like to see what I have been up to.

I colored the image above using copic markers on xpress it blending card. A nestabilies circle die was  used to cut it out and it was adhered onto the embossed background using pop-up tape. Embossing was done using an old cuttlebug embossing folder, and an old SU punch for the scalloped edge. I finished the card off by adding some sparkly gold cord and stamped the little sentiments from the Holiday Snippets set by Penny Black (available in my Etsy shop). The white polka dots on the red ribbon were done using a white Faber Castell pitt marker. 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Vacation time was fun, we took a 12 hour road trip to South Dakota to visit the sights in western South Dakota. It was a pretty boring drive through Iowa, Minnesota and most of South Dakota, drove through some stormy weather in Minnesota which was very scary but luckily we got out of it quickly. 

Our first stop was the Badlands National Park, which I had no clue even existed, but thanks to Pinterest I discovered this unique and beautiful National Park, and it was mainly the reason why I wanted to take this trip.
A few pictures below...

There were signs everywhere to watch out for rattle snakes. We didn't see any thankfully, but kept hearing them. But we did see some sort of big horn sheep up in these hills. There were also plenty of prairie dogs on the loop road.

The photo above was taken at the last trail we hiked before leaving the park. I loved how far you could see, such amazing scenery and it reminded me of western movies I have watched.
This is me somewhere at the end of a hiking trail. There are several hiking trails, we did a few easy ones but they were very enjoyable.

At the end of the easy trails, you could just keep on hiking (at your own risk).

 Some people hiked all the way up the mountains, we saw a couple of them slip but luckily they didn't fall off. Much of the mountains are covered in dry dirt and it can become slippery. Hiking shoes or cross trainers are a must.
 If you don't have time to hike, or are unable to,  you can also enjoy the views by simply driving on the Badlands Scenic Byway Loop road to enjoy the sights.

Next up we went to Custer State Park, which has some amazing rock formations.


We hiked around beautiful Sylvan Lake which is supposed to be an easy trail, but somewhere along the way we got lost and ended up having to do a little bit of climbing, but even my dad who is over 70 managed with a little help. 

Sylvan Lake below..

You can swim in this lake and you can rent boats. If you possibly can, bring a picnic lunch. We waited forever on our pizza at the gift shop area, only to receive a mostly unbaked pizza for lots of $$.

Me and my dad hiking somewhere by the lake where we got lost.

We took the needles highway to explore more of the park, which takes you up to where the needle's eye is. A little scary but you are rewarded with beautiful views all around.

Amazing rock formations everywhere...

We did find the needle's eye right underneath a tunnel.
And not only did we get to see the needle's eye, we were also greeted by these mountain goats inside the tunnel who did not want to let us by. I don't think they liked us being there. Some crazy people actually got out of their cars and got way too close to the animals inside a narrow tunnel. 


Wildlife loop was next up, where we got to see grazing buffalo, herds of antelope and deer, curious donkeys and lots of cute prairie dogs.


From the Wildlife Loop we took Iron Mountain Road to drive to Mount Rushmore
I have seen plenty of pictures of Mount Rushmore before, which made me believe it was smaller than it actually was. We only hiked about half way up (the easy part). I believe you can hike all the way up, but that's supposed to be really hard so we stopped under their noses. We didn't want to leave my dad behind just waiting on us.
The sun was going down and so this photo isn't the best.


Here is a better (zoomed in ) view with just the mountain.


Of course we had to go see Crazy Horse Memorial which is also really close to Custer State Park. There are many many years left before this mountain carving will be complete,

and one day it will look like the statue you see in the photo below.

While out west, we also drove into Wyoming to see the Devils Tower National Monument, which is really close to the SD border.
We took the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway and stopped a couple times to visit the city of Deadwood (which was recommended to us by a lady at a visitors center) and also to hike to Roughlock Falls.

I did not like Deadwood (too touristy and too much of a gambling town - really wish we had skipped it, luckily we only spent about an hour there), but the trail to Roughlock Falls was beautiful and easy, and loved the waterfall at the end of the trail. This area of the Black Hills was shown in the movie "Dances with Wolves" with Kevin Costner. It's been a really long time since I watched that movie, might have to plan a movie night soon :-)

Well, this post definitely is one of the longest I have ever done. I should have probably done a separate travel post, for each day of our trip, but I just don't travel enough and don't live in an interesting area, to keep doing travel posts.

Thanks so much for visiting and hope I didn't bore you too much with my vacation pictures :-)


Jul 3, 2016

Penny Black and More - July challenge

This is a scheduled post, been taking a little bit of a card making and blogging break, but I made this card well in advance for the Penny Black and More July challenge. We're continuing with easy themes, anything goes this month, just be sure your focal point is stamped (not a digi) - from any company.
I masked the edges of the white card front using painter's tape, then tore some printer paper to create a hill mask. Pan pastels were sponged onto the background and after removing the mask I stamped the tree using versafine onyx ink. The words from a clear whimsy stamps set were randomly stamped onto the background before I added the sentiment. Embellished with a little prima flower and sticky pearl, removed the painter's tape, then adhered to a white card base. 
Sentiment and tree are from the Penny Black set Enjoy Life, words are from the clear Whimsy Stamp set Backgrounds and Borders.

Hope you come join us this month, we have some great prizes to give away as always :-) 
Have a great Sunday!