Hello

A few weeks ago we took a drive to London (ON) and I stopped at my favourite stamp store - Stamp Art. If you live in the area and looking for a great stamp store, this is it.  Nancy carries a wide variety of many companies and will be glad to order something for you if you don't see it in her store.  I literally could spend a couple of hours in her store, just so much to see and she is always very helpful at showing you 'what's new'.

So with the 'what's new', one of the many things  I came home with was this beautiful die from Studio Light. I went through some of my backgrounds I made and came across this vibrant one. 

I think I used distress oxide sprays onto some watercolour paper.  I cut it using an MFT scallop die, cut out the floral from white c/s twice and glued together.  I also cut a 'hello' from black c/s twice and layered.  The hello die is from creative expressions.

To finish off I added some sequins and pearls and used my Nuvo clear glitter pen for sparkle on the flowers.

I love that dies make the card making process much quicker.  What did we ever do before dies were available??

Thanks for stopping in today.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Pauline

From the archives

Hello everyone, hope you had an enjoyable weekend!  Yesterday we got some much need rain (thunder showers) to give some relief from this terrible heat wave we've been having. It will still be in the mid 90's for most of this coming week, and then back up to about 110 on Saturday!

After reading Leslie Miller's post a few weeks back about UFO (unfinished objects), I decided to take a look in my basket to see what I had and if there was anything I could salvage.  Low and behold I came across this embossed Thistle.  You will never guess how long I have had this? Are you ready? I'm going to say at least 10 yrs! Back in 2009 or 2010 our local stamp store had Fred B Mullet come teach us a class.  We did fish, leaves, flowers just to name a few.  Looks like I had embossed this with a couple of different embossing powders but that was as far as I got with it.

So pulled out some papers and put it all together.

I dusted the edges around the thistles with some antique linen just to soften the white down somewhat.The card base and the frame around the thistles is a deep purple/gold metallic cardstock. It is a very rich colour.  Designer paper is from Memory Box. 

To finish I added some coloured pearls.

I appreciate you stopping by today.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Watercoloured Hydrangea

Don't you find this summer is flying by, I mean here we are already in the middle of July! Maybe it's  because I'm super busy with a new job I started at work end of June.  Lots of long days, so much to learn, but I love it. Change is always good! Still working from home which I really don't mind, I just miss seeing everyone, although we can still chat through Skype and Microsoft Team - technology is a wonderful thing!

Any way, lets get on with my card.  I had this coloured almost a month now, so thought  I best share it with you.

This is a Paint-a-flower from Altenew, it's a monthly club stamp set.  Price is great and you can opt out of a month if it something you really don't want which is always nice.

To start I white embossed the hydrangea onto  some Canson 140lb water colour paper.  I then pulled out my Altenew Brush Markers - spring garden set and watercoloured away. I covered the hydrangea once done and splattered some blue and purple inks.

I kind of visioned another layout but in the end this is what I ended up with!  I used some Papertrey Ink paper for the bottom part, added some silk ribbon  and some tiny colour pearls to finish this off.  Also added Nuvo clear glitter pen to the hydrangea for some shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by, have a fabulous day!

Pauline

Sunrise

Well it's going to be another scorcher of a day.  It's been hot and dry here you would think we were living in the desert! This past week temperatures felt like 40C (104F), with no end over the next couple of weeks, other than Monday it's suppose to drop down to 32C (90) but that's it. 

June was a busy month for the need of masculine birthday cards.  Today I have one to share with you.

I'm using a stamp from Magenta.  There is no name on the package, sorry.  I stamped this onto some water colour canson 140lb  paper using black ink.  I then sponged on some distress oxide inks.

Trimmed the image down slightly to fit behind my black frame cut from MFT stitched square frames.  The blades of grass are from Impression Obsession, cut from green c/s, then sponged a bit of green ink.

Paper is from MME - dilly dally.   Added a sentiment and a couple of enamel dots.

An after thought, I think next time I would use white c/s rather than water colour.  It was hard to get a really good impression of the crane as the paper has a bit of texture to it.

Well that's it for me today.  Have a wonderful weekend.  Keep well, stay cool!

Hugs,
Pauline

Colourful pinwheels

Hello everyone and Happy Monday! Hope you had a good weekend.  It has been so hot here in SW Ontario, ( as a matter of fact for most of Ontario)  and looks like it will continue into next week.  As much as I love to be outdoors, the heat is just unbearable with the humidex making it feel over 100F.  So what better place to be but in my craft room!

For my card today, I'm using stamps, stencils and dies from The Greetery, The Pinwheel Party Stencils, Pinwheels Party Die, and Birthday Blooms stamps set.

I started with the stencils.  There are 4 stencils to this set, Set A - has 2 stencils and Set B has two stencils along with three individual single stencils varying in size from large, med, and small.

I used distress oxide inks, and I didn't keep track, just too many inks and I just played and had fun.  I created a couple of backgrounds and then I die cut several of each size and used the stencils to colour.  I have lots of extras for future cards.

Once I created my pinwheels using both Set A & B stencils, Betsy has also created a stencil to cover your pinwheels so you can add some ink blending below the stenciled pinwheels - you can see where I added the blue ink. 

I die cut the background shadow fro white c/s  for the "YOU", and then I stamped the "YOU using black versafine ink.  I lined up very carefully the 'let's celebrate' and also stamped with black versafine. 

I cut the streamers and ink blended using oxide inks. I also stamped some little stars here and there using oxide fossilized amber.

I then put all the layers together, popping up two of the single pinwheels for dimension. 

Then the fun part, I added bling and lots of it, I mean how could you not, it's a celebration! I also added some wink of stella for some shimmer.

This was a lot of fun making this.  Just love those pinwheels.  I can't wait to try a Christmas card using some holiday colours!

I am also entering this into the Inspired by Challenge

So glad you stopped by today.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Birding #3, 2020

I have a couple of cards completed, but I have not gotten around to take pictures of them yet, so decided to share some more of my birding photography with you.

These are all taken in the month of May during spring migration.

The first 5,  were taken in my backyard.

 The Cape May hung around in the yard for about 15 minutes, I just happened to look out the window and saw something fluttering, grabbed my camera and out I went.  I've never seen one in our backyard before, then again unusual times and working from home.

 The Carolina Wren pops in every now and again, hear him calling early in the morning.

The Brown Thrasher - every year we see one in our yard  in the tree tops, calling, but then takes off and never see him again. This year he was in our yard for just over 2 weeks, along with another one.  I'm pretty sure it was another male as this guy did not like the other being around in his territory! Have you ever heard one call before? If not you should go to All About Birds website and have a listen.

Another unusual sighting in our yard this year was a Veery.  These guys are very skittish, and likes to hide underneath the cedars, but would pop out with ease to check things out.  I saw him from my craft window just after dinner one evening and then he ran underneath the trees.  So out I went sat on the deck and waited for him to show himself and he did! Cute little guy!

And then we have the Baltimore Oriole.  Last week of April we get the sugar water made and out in the feeder waiting for them to come.  This spring we had 3 pairs, but they are now nesting, so will probably see them again towards the end of July. Such a beautiful bird the male is.

Out and about birding up north near Tobermory, ON - 4 hr drive each way, a long day but worth what we saw.  I have many more pictures to share from up there, just haven't had time to work on them.  Here are a few of what we saw.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I love taking the.  I have a few thousand pictures to go through, just haven't had much time with working, house and yard duties and trying to fit in a card now and then. 

I appreciate your stopping by.  Keep well my friends!

Pauline