Bejewled x 2

A quick post tonight to share a couple of Penny Black cards.  This image is called Bejewled.
I'm a bit behind in posting as I have been working lots of overtime over the last 4 weeks, which leaves no time for stamping. These 2 cards I finished back in July.

Using my Misti, white cardstock and Memento inks.  As these were done a while ago I did not keep track of the colours I used. After I was done with the stamping, I sponged some inks for the background.

I didn't want to stamp a sentiment on the front, but felt it needed something.  I pulled out my container of pre-cut dies cuts and came across this swirly one and thought it looked interesting along the bottom.  This die is from Memory Box - Valencia border.

I kept it fairly simple, I didn't even add wink of stella for a bit of sparkle!

Since I had my Misti out and stamp inside, I decided to to another card using the same stamp but different colours. Again I used Memento inks.

 
I cut out the image using a die from MFT.  Leaving the die in place I sponged some inks for the background.
For this one, I stamped 'Hi there' in black versafine and then added some white chiffon ribbon tied on a diagonal along the bottom portion.

I love how these turned out.  Once you get going on these types of brushstoke stamps and your Misti, they work up pretty quick.

I hope to get back to stamping soon, O/T should wrap up this week, and with the long weekend ahead, I hope to get into my craft room.  Thanks for being patient and continuing to follow.  I will have some more bird pictures in my next post, so stay tuned.

Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Summer birds #2

I don't have a card to share today, but I do have some more of our birding photographs.  These were taken over the past few weekends. Most of these are Bill's photo's, to tell the difference between mine and Bill's, if you look at the bottom right hand corner of each photo, if my name is first, then I took it, if Bill's is first then he took it! Fall migration is starting to happen, as we are seeing more birds each weekend moving through the area and heading south for the winter. 

So sit back and enjoy the show! (click each to enlarge).

 

I have a few more pictures, but for some reason they wouldn't upload.  I will have Bill take a look and do another post next week.  I hope you enjoyed these.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pauline

Mum floral frame

Hello! Well here we are at the start of another week.  This summer is flying by don't you think?
I'm back today to share a card I made for my daughter to give to her group's summer student.  At work we have summer students that come in from May to mid-end of Aug.  Karen asked if I would make a card for the dept to sign, and she specifically said it has to have pink in it and say 'thank you'.

Here are the details:

I'm using Simon Says Mum Floral Frame.  I cut it out of a 4.25 square white c/s. I took another piece the same size and sponged some distress oxide. I used spun sugar, pickled raspberry and tumbled glass.

I then added some foam tape to the back of the frame and popped it up over the distress background.
I was going to just layer this onto another piece of white, but how boring would that be?  So I pulled out Simon Says Beautiful flower stamp, inked it up with some spun sugar and stamped it diagonally on the card base.  I then adhered the frame on top.  For the sentiment I used Papertrey Ink Inside & out Thank You set and embossed it on a piece of black c/s using white embossing powder.  Once heat set I cut the front end on an angle, added some foam tape and adhered to the card.

To finish off I added some clear sequins.

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Pauline

Ist Christmas card for 2018

What can I say? Over half the year gone and I'm just starting to work on my Christmas cards for this year.  My thoughts were to make a couple each month so I wouldn't have so much to do in the end, but you can see how that thought went!

Nevertheless, I have started.  When I received my package in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Whimsy Stamps, and pulled out this cutie, I knew I had to colour him up right away. This image is called Jingle Bells 2 - Elephant.

I used prisma colour pencils to colour. After I was done, I sponged some blue and green around the edges to fill in the white space.  I originally thought of making it a square card so that's why I went with the square stitched frame, but I was hard to do some embossing on a 5.5 card, when trying to maneuver the embossing folder and to have it fit in the machine - sometimes it just doesn't work. So I opt for the 6.25 x 4.5.

I used a Darice snowflake embossing folder for the background.  MFT stitched square frame and flag stax for the sentiment.

To finish off I added some glossy accents to the jingle bells, white flock to the hat trim, stamped some little snowflakes around the edges of the image topped with some glitter, then  added a couple of small snowflakes on the side of the frame- I covered them with glue using my quickie glue pen then dunked them in my jar of TH distress glitter.
I used one of the sentiments from MFT BB Santa's Elves set and stamped it in black on a flag stax. I then layered some red c/s underneath just to give it a bit of colour, and then added some dimensionals behind it.

So there you have it, my first 2018 Christmas card in the books! Now just to get working on the rest.
I haven't had much time lately for stamping.  I've been working a lot of o/t through the week (12 hr days)  and on Saturdays, which will continue for another couple of weeks. So when I'm up to it a night (which doesn't seem to be to often) I try to squeeze a bit of stamping in.

I appreciate you stopping by. Have a great day!

Pauline

Birds of Summer

I thought I would give you a break from my cards and decided to share some bird photo's that Bill & I took back in July. These were taken in Northern Ontario.  It was a long drive 5 hrs each way, and we did these on Saturday day trips. Left at 4am and got home around 9 pm.  Yes, we are a bit crazy aren't we? Hey, if you want to get certain birds you need to travel to where they are.

The first section are pictures that I captured, and the second is what Bill took. I had a hard time deciding on which ones to post as we have many to choose from.  These are some of our favourites. To see a closer up view you can click on each picture.


My pictures:

This juvenile male wood duck was just moving ever so slightly across a small little pond just off the road way when we arrived. 

 

 We were sitting in the car on the side of a dirt road, and I happened to see something moving in the trees behind the fence line.  All of a sudden this Flicker was flying toward the car, and he landed about 20 feet in front of me on top of a bird house! How cool was that?  Bill is saying "there you go, he is right in front of you, hurry up take the picture" as these birds are very skittish, so I was panicking, trying to focus and click away, I managed 3 good pictures of this guy! I"m surprised he sat as long as he did.

 

This next bird, is the whole reason we traveled so far .  This is a Golden Winged Warbler,  and we were thrilled beyond words when we found him.  We have tried to see this bird during spring migration here in SW Ontario at Pt Pelee, but always seemed that  we were never in the right spot at the right time when it is spotted.  So after a few years of trying to photograph this beautiful bird we were successful! If you look closely you can see his tongue as he is singing!

 

A Common Yellowthroat Warbler landed on a branch as he was fluttering around.

 

Another pose of the Golden Winged Warbler - looks like he has lunch in his beak!

 

As we decided to head home (on our 2nd visit to this area)  we were traveling down another dirt road and Bill happened to see this guy wandering around in the meadow.  This is a Sandhill Crane. 

 

Next up, and last for my photo's is the Male American Redstart.  

 

 Bill's Photos:

A Common Yellowthroat Warbler - looks like he has his meal all planned! Not one but two worms!

 

Sandhill Crane - this was taken the first time we ventured up to this area. 

 

The Golden Winged Warbler - love him perched against this branch covered in lichen. He sat for quite a while as we photographed him .

 

And lastly, another pose of the Common Yellowthroat Warbler.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I have some more to share of this past weekend.  Will post those next week.

Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Miraculous Mushrooms

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week, and enjoying your weekend.  We are in the middle of another heat wave, temperatures today reached 106F, it's just too hot to be outside. 

This morning Bill and I ventured out early before the heat set in.  We hit some of our usual spots looking for some birds.  Although we are kind of early for the migration to begin, you just never know what pops up.  Today we saw a couple of hummingbirds, - captured a couple of nice shots, and of the house wren a well.  I hope to show you these shortly.

Today's card features one of the newest digital images released from Power Poppy called Miraculous Mushrooms.  My whole thought when I started to colour this image was to match it up with some mushroom image dp I had.  Once it was all coloured, the mushroom dp was just too busy, so I opt for another route.  Kept this 'masculine', as I never seem to have very many of these on hand.

I coloured the image with Copics.  I was very undecided as to how to cut out this image, I finally settled on the oval arch from MFT - (I don't think they sell this anymore). I left the die in place then sponged some antique linen lightly around the bottom edge.

Designer paper is from Echo Park - Reflection Fall & MME - Wood Designer Paper.  I added some twine around the middle and finished off with some wooden dots.  Image is popped up off the card.

I finally started to work on some Christmas cards!  Well, lets say I finished colouring one, now need to get that onto a card! Progress, progress!

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Pauline