Floral Notes

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing fine!

Sorry for not being around much in the last few weeks.  Work has been busy, and I don't feel much like making cards or blogging at night.  This weekend, weather was gorgeous, we did a lot of yard work, much more to go, but we put a big dent into it.

My card today is one that I made for my last card order last month, but just never posted yet.  This is a Mother's Day card. 

Using Pinkfresh Studio dies and stencils.- Floral notes stencil & die, slim lacey edger die and Inverted diamond stencil.

I started by stenciling the floral notes using Pinkfresh studio inks.  I then cut it out using matching die, and also cut an extra one and adhered together for some dimension.

For the layer on top of my base, I using one of the edger dies from the set and cut it along the bottom edge.  I then placed the inverted diagonal stencil on top and sponged inks very lightly, blue more in the middle and the yellow and greens out towards the sides.

I stamped the sentiment in black versafine clair and cut it out with a flag banner die.

I adhered everything together, flat, but popped up the sentiment.

To finish off I added tiny pearls to the centers of the floral border, TH rock candy glitter to the centers of the flowers  and enamel dots around the floral.  For the centers of the flowers - I using a tiny stamp from on of my Papertrey Ink stamps sets and stamped it in black.  I just thought it was too plain and needed something.

That's it for me today. I appreciate your visit.  See you again real soon!

Pauline

Mixed Bouquet

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I last posted, work has been busy, and when Im not at work Bill and I have been out photography birds as the spring migration has begun. Today I have a  Mother's Day card to share I made for my basket at work.

I used Papertrey Ink's Mixed Bouquet flower set, stamped the flowers in PTI inks and then sponged some spring moss ink along the bottom.  I cut this out using MFT stitched rectangle die.

I was going to sponge some clouds in the sky, but saw this piece of white already die cut on my table, so laid that on top and loved the look. This die is from Aliexpress.  I did sponge some SU soft sky ink along the top just so it would make the lacy die cut pop a bit.

I added some silk ribbon and I also made a couple of banners from the left over paper from my card base which is from Prima Marketing - Firefly collection.  Added a small white flower, pearls and Tim Holtz clear distress glitter to finish this off.

It does look a bit blurry as I look at this now.  Maybe it's just my eyes - I hope so.

Have a wonderful day, and as always I appreciate you stopping by.

Pauline

Beautiful day

Hello everyone.  I'm back today to share another birthday card I made for my friends order.

I'm using Altenew's Handpicked Bouquet and matching die.

I started by stamping and embossing with platinum the floral onto some watercolour paper.  I then used my Zig markers to watercolour.  Once done I used the coordinating die to cut it out.

For my background I smooshed some distress oxide inks onto my glass mat, spritzed and then dabbed my paper into the inks until I liked what I saw.  I also splattered some distress ink on top once it was dry.  I then used an MFT die to cut out the background.  Some foam tape was added behind the scallop layer then I adhered this to my card base.

The sentiment is from Altenew - Beautiful Day and is embossed in white onto some black c/s.  I then cut it down to make a banner tag and adhered it to the bottom.  I was going to add some dimension in behind the flowers, but didn't want to make this card to thick as I already had some foam tape behind the background layer, so just adhered this flat. 

To finish off I added some enamel dots!

Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate when you do.  Have yourself a fabulous weekend!

Paline

Lily of the Valley

Well, hello everyone! Today's card I made with Easter in mind, as well as I made a few of these for Mother's day and birthdays.  I ended up making 3 of these and boy were they easy.  I love dies when  they do most of the work for you.

I'm using Memory Box "Lilly of the Valley Frame" for my card. I started by die cutting it from white cougar 100 lb c/s. There are 2 pieces to this die, the outside square frame and the lily circle.

I coloured the lily with copic markers, a few shades of green and a few shades of the lilac. I also sponged some distress oxide ink onto a piece of white c/s to put behind the lily's. I used spellbinders circle die to cut out the distress background to adhere behind the lily frame.

I find lilac/mauve/purple designer papers hard to match up with inks, but I found some MFT papers from the Tranquil textures paper pack that seems to match quite well with the mauve c/s and the lily's. I added some silk ribbon to cover the transition between c/s and deisnger paper, then added a small bow on the side.

For finishing touches I used my clear wink of stella pen for the lily's, clear sequins and some pearls for the corners of the square frame.

I'm off for 4 days, but it doesn't look too promising for Bill and I to get out for some spring migration birding.  It's been raining since last night and rain today and tomorrow and Monday, so looks like our only good day will be Easter Sunday.  On the bright side, maybe I'll be able to create a few more cards this weekend.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone! Wishing your a wonderful day!

Pauline

Spring Cardinal

Hi there! You know how much I love birds and nature in general, well my co-worker asked for a special Mother's Day card for her Mom.  She asked if I could do something with a Cardinal on it.  Of course I can - right? Card makers can do anything! LOL.  So I was on the hunt for a cardinal image.  I have a few but they are Christmas/winter images and didn't think that would go so well for Mother's Day in May!

So, I did a search on Pinterest, looking for digital cardinal images and came across one that thought might work.  I resized it and then scaled down the darkness of black to light grey, printed it off and went with it.

I coloured the image using copic markers, and added some shading doing the pointillism technique.
From there I did some die cutting for the layers.  Designer paper is from Memory Box.

Finished off with some silk ribbon and double bow. pearls, Tim Holtz rock glitter, and a flower from Wild Orchid flowers. I was thrilled on how this one turned out!

Yesterday, we had the most beautiful day - it was 23C (almost 70F).  Today calling for some rain, and snow rain mix for tomorrow.  Winter just doesn't want to leave!

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

Pauline

Supplies:
Image - digital off of Pinterest
Ink - copics - cardinal - R24, R27, R29, R59, beak- YR22, YR24, branch - E49, feet - YR24, flowrs - R000, R02, R05, YG13, YG45, G28, Y38, dots for shading - R01, G00, BG000, Y23
Paper - Memory Box, white, bazzill - quartz
Dies - MFT stitched scallop circle, Spellbinders circle, Joy craft - Square frame
Misc - pearls, silk ribbon, tim holtz rock glitter, quickie glue pen, wild orchid flower

Beautiful Flower 2

Hello!  I  hope everyone had a good weekend.  Today's card is show casing one of the flowers from the Simon Says Stamp - Beautiful Flowers 2 set.

I stamped the image in distress antique linen for a no-line image onto some Strathmore mixed media paper..  I started out by watercolouring using Daniel Smith watercolours ( I bought a couple of the watercolour palette from SSS - a Debby Hughes Palette and Shari Carroll Palette, so I could try these out, very inexpensive only a couple of bucks for each. Once coloured to where I was happy with it, I switched over to Polychromos pencils for some added detail.

Using an oval die, I cut out the flower, left the die in place and sponged inks around the edge.  This was then layered onto a scallop oval die cut from a soft coral/pink card stock.

Designer paper is from Mintay - Birdsong. The papers in this pad are all gorgeous.  So hard to pick what to use and even harder to even into them lol.  I layered some cheese cloth in behind the image, and also cut out a small butterfly from the piece that I trimmed off.

Added some silk ribbon and bow, added the butterfly and some clear crystal droplets on the leaves. In the center of the flower I added a little bit of my gold wink of stella pen.

Not sure what I will use this card for, but will probably put a Mother's Day verse inside and added to my sale basket at work.

I always appreciate your visit, wishing you a fabulous day!

Pauline

Supplies:
Stamp - SSS Beautiful Flowers 2
Papers - Mintay - birdsong,  Strathmore Mixed media paper, coral, white
Ink - Daniel Smith watercolours, Polychromoas pencils, distress - ripe persimmon, scattered straw and antique linen
Die - Spellbinder Oval & scallop oval
Misc - silk ribbon, cheese cloth, crystal droplets.

Simple stems

Today, I'm sharing a couple of cards I made back in May, and I guess I overlooked them, as I was going through my file of cards to post I realized I missed these.

These are both made using Papertrey Ink Vogue Vases & Simple Stems.

One I used for Mother's Day, the other for Friendship.

I added wink of stella clear pen to the flowers and popped up the middle vase.  The white scallop layer behind is a die from MFT.  All inks I used were from PTI.  I love how the cards turned out.  The Simple Stems set has lovely sentiments included, lots of choices.

I took my stash basket down to our local Scrapbook store - The Paper Pickle and Kim  bought all my cards - 17 of them, so now I need to start over and build up my stash! With temperatures today reaching over 100 it's too hot for out door activity, so I think I will stay indoors and work on some cards.

I'll see you back here soon! Enjoy your day.

Pauline

Graceful still life

Hello everyone! I guess it's a Happy Monday since I was off today due to a Stat Holiday here in Canada - Victoria Day, but the sad news is that my week long vacation is over, back to work tomorrow!  Bill and I have been busy this past week, walked a lot of trails, took lots of pictures, did lots of yard work (which never seems to end), and I didn't even have time to make a card! I have a couple of birthday's coming up over the next few weeks so need to get back into my routine.

Today's card is another one I made for Mother's Day.  This one actually went to my BFF - Nancy. Nancy's husband requested a card for her for Mother's day.  I knew she would love this, and she did!  I"m using Powerpoppy's Graceful Still Life digital image.

I used prismacolour pencils to colour.  I then cut it out using  MFT stitched rectangle die.
I die cut the border from white c/s - die is by Find it Trading - african border.  Designer paper is Kaisercraft - Kaleidoscope.  The card base is a bit darker here in the picture than in real, I guess I woud call it a deep coral. 

To finish off I added a small flag banner and added an enamel dot and a small silk bow. Used my wink of stella clear pen to add some shimmer to the flowers.

I'm glad you stopped by today.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Garden Treasures

 I'm back today to share another Mother's Day card with you.  I'm using Altenew's Garden Treasure stamp set and matching dies. 

I used Altenew dye inks to stamp out all the flowers and then die cut with the matching dies. I had PTI - Shape Shifter oval die 1 already cut out laying on my table so decided to use this as my centerpiece background.

Designer paper is from my scrap bin.  On the bottom part of the pink gingham paper I added some white rub-ons to give it that bit of extraness.  This seemed to work out well because by doing the rub-ons I was able to add a small rhinestone in the center of each flower.

I also added some small pearls to the oval die.  Now you probably think I'm a bit crazy using such a bright ribbon, but I tell you honestly it is not that bright of a pink in real. It actually matches the gingham pink colour pretty close.  Sometimes the camera captures colours in a different way.  I used my wink of stella clear pen to add sparkle to the flowers.

I made this for a friends MIL.

Have a great day!
Pauline

A Mother.....

Well it's that time of year again, quickly approaching - Mother's Day!  Although my Mom passed 9 years ago in July, there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her.  It's hard to believe it's been that long already.  Every year when I make MD cards, I always make them with my Mom in mind - what would I make her if I were to make one. She always loved my cards, and saved every one of them.  Now my Dad always looks forward to my handmade cards.

Today's card is one of 3 that I made this year.  I started by die cutting using one of the Find It Trading dies by Lilly Luna called No 1 Flower to love frame. On a piece of white c/s  I stamped the sentiment from AmyR stamps (discontinued) - set is called  All about Mom Sentiments using black versafine.  I then cut it our with a Spellbinder circle die, then using the next size up  die, I cut it using Papertrey Ink Lavender Moon.

I found some scrap designer paper in my bin which seem to match up with the lavender moon paper quite well.  I layered the Lilly Luna die cut over the designer paper. Adhered the 2 circles then added flowers from Wild Orchid.

Finished off with wink of stella clear pen painted over all the flowers for that bit of sparkle and then added small pearls to the centers of each of the flowers on the background.

Have yourself a wonderful day.  I'll be back soon with another Mother's Day card.

Pauline

Mother's Day #2

As Mother's Day has come and gone I still have one more card to share with you.

I'm using some PTI dies for this card.  The focus point is using a die called Cutaway Tags - spring die.  This die also comes with a coordinating stamp set.  You can either colour the flowers once you cut out the tag or you can use the coordinating stamps - ink - and then stamp over the image on the die cut.  In this case I used the stamps to stamp on the die cut piece.  I also cut a piece of tiny polka dot vellum and layer it behind the tag. I then layered it onto a scrap piece of dp, using PTI - tag sale - quilted die. For my card base and back ground layer  I used PTI- Noted scallop A2 vertical dies. 

For the sentiment I cut another cutaway tag and trimmed off the center part, so I could stamp the sentiment and pop it up.  This set comes with a variety of sentiments that can be used.

Finished off with some ribbon, and glitter on the flowers.

I wish you a wonderful day.

Pauline

Happy Mother's Day

Hello everyone.  Just popping in to wish all the Mom's a Happy Mothers Day.  I still have a couple of Mother's Day cards to share that I made a few weeks ago.

The one today, is using a digital image from Power Poppy called - sunset sway.  This digi comes in 2 variations - one with a butterfly and one with out.

After printing it off, I used prismacolour pencils to colour.  I then cut it out using spellbinders labels twenty-eight.  Leaving the die in place I sponged a light layer of Memento  new sprout around the edges.  I then cut  spellbinders A2 Devine Eleoquence using dark purple bazzil cardstock, and added a layer of light mauve behind it.  

To finish off I added some lace, silk ribbon and sequins along with a bit of shimmer added to the flowers using my wink of stella clear pen.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Spring has sprung

Good morning and Happy Monday.  Although it is raining out it is still a good morning, since I"m off today. It was a cold weekend, still wearing winter coat, hat & mitts as we ventured down to Pt. Pelee National Park.  It was a north west wind, which made it very cold.  But non the less we were able to see some migrant warblers at the tip.  We were lucky enough to see a Prairie Warbler (rare) but not a very good picture as it was gloomy and dark, but at least we can see we saw one! Some of the other varieties we saw were Yellow-rumped warbler, blue headed vireo, baltimore oriole, cape may, palm, black & white, warbling vireo, and a solitary sandpiper.

Since we are on the topic of birds, I thought I would share this card today.  I'm using an image from the Flourishes LLC set called Spring has Sprung. 

I stamped the image onto some white cougar 100 lb c/s, then coloured using prismacolour pencils.
I then cut it out using a Papertrey Ink die called Fun frames die.  I actually cut the rectangle piece a second time so I could layer it under the image piece for a bit of dimension.

I used my MFT- Die-namics stitched cover-up companion - vertical die to cut my designer paper - Pink Paislee- butterfly garden.  I used papers from the same collection for the 2 inserts.  Love how this looks!  To finish off, I added some silk ribbon, clear sequins and used my wink of stella clear pen for a bit of shimmer on the flowers.

This card could be used for many occasions, but I am using  it as a Mother's Day card!

I hope I have inspired you in some way today.  Have a wonderful day, and thanks for your visit.

Pauline

Purple Mum

Hi everyone.  Well it is a very gloomy day here today in SW Ontario. It's been raining since late yesterday afternoon, and suppose to continue into the evening hours.  We did some planting in the gardens yesterday, so the rain is a nice welcome for them.

I guess today is a good day to be working on some cards.  The card I'm showing today is one of the Mother's Day cards I made a while ago.  I think this is the last of them - I told you I made a lot!

I'm using the Justrite stamp set called Mum.  I had used it before, so again I have used the same technique as my first card, but changed the colours and layout.

After embossing the flower onto some watercolour paper using white embossing powder I coloured the image using distress inks.  Once the image was dried I then coloured the background, first by wetting the area with water then going back in with ink on my brush and dropping it into the area and blending a bit.

I then cut it out using an oval die, and adhering it to white card stock that was cut from the Fleur de Elegance die. While the die was in place I sponged some dusty concord (very little ink on sponge) and lightly brushed it over the open areas on the die.  Once die is removed you can see where I had sponged the ink - so pretty.

To finish I made a bow with some dark purple seam binding ribbon, added a flower and leaf, and pearls.

Supplies:
stamp - Justrite - Mum
ink - versamark, distress - peacock feathers, seedless preserves, forest moss, salty ocien, dusty concord, peeled paint
paper - white cougar 100 lb, bazzill blue, watercolour
die - spellbinders - oval & Fleur de Elegence
misc - pearls, ribbon, flowers, white embossing powder

Thanks for the visit, see you soon,

Pauline

Gentle Whisper

Hi everyone.  Happy Monday, and it was a happy day for me, and for my husband Bill.  You know how much we love to follow the bird migration, well today we had the day  off and headed out to Rondeau Provincial Park to hopefully see the "Prothonotory Warbler". After about an hour of waiting in the area he has been spotted he arrived, and he is beautiful.  This is one bird that is on our 'lifer' list.  I will share pictures once we get through the next couple of weeks of bird migration. 

I still have a couple more Mother's Day cards to share.  This one is using one of Penny Black's stamp called Gentle Whisper.

I started by inking by stamp using memento inks, then stamped it onto some MFT Naturals card stock.  I then applied the inks onto an acrylic block, used a wet paint brush, and add some more colour to the flowers.  I then used a  rectangle die to cut out the image.  I didn't like the way it looked, so I used on of the dies for spellbinders A2 curved borders one.  I then edged the edges using my gold kyron pen.

The image was layered onto a piece of designer paper from Prima - Firefly, then on to a piece of cream. I tied a piece of sparkly light pink chiffon ribbon around the image then adhered this to my card base.

I added some Art Institute glitter to the flowers and sequins to finish off.

Supplies:
Stamp - Penny Black - gentle whisper
ink - Memento - rose bud, bamboo leaves, olive grove, elderberry, dandelion
dies - spellbinders - rectrange, A2 curved border one
paper - MFT naturals, cream, Prima - firefly
misc - ribbon, gold krylon pen, sequins, art institute glitter - amethyst, spring mint

Thanks for stopping by. Till next time...

Pauline 

Vintage Hycinthia

Hi, I'm back today with another Mother's Day card to share.  I have so many Flourishes stamps that have never seen ink and this one in particular was one of them.

I remember my Mom always had these flowers growing in the garden, so pretty in the blue/purple tones.  I wanted to use this new paper pack so I went with a orange/red colour of flower.

I stamped the image using black memento onto some white card stock.  I then coloured the image using copics then used spellbinders labels twenty nine to cut it out.  I left the die in place then sponged some antique linen around the edges.

The orange/red layer under the image was cut using one of the dies from the MFT blueprints #15 set.
In triming the background paper down to size I made sure to leave some of the wording - like at the bottom of the card - let your beautiful soul shine - just love that.

Finishing touches include stitching, button, twine, glitter and some lace ribbon with blue velvet running through the middle.

Supplies:
stamp - Flourishes - Hycinthia
ink - black memento, antique linen distress ink, copics - E30, E31, E33, E35, YG01, YG13, YG67, R000, R00, R02, R05, R21, BG0000, BG 10
paper - white cougar 100 lb, SU cool caribbean, Prima - Bella Rouge, MFT - naturals
dies- spellbinder - labels twenty nine, MFT - blueprints #15
Misc - glitter, button, twine, ribbon

Thanks for the visit.  Have a wonderful week.

Pauline

Amazing Mom

Just popping in for a quick post tonight.   I have another Mother's Day card to share.

Not a lot of explanation needed for this card:

Supplies:
Stamp - Verve - Love Deepens
ink - black versafine
paper - cream, gold metallic, K& C Madeline, green
dies: spellbinder circles, butterflies circles, scallop circles
misc - corded lace, pearls, wild orchid flowers

Thanks for stopping by.  

Pauline

Watercoloured Mum

So looking forward to this coming weekend, not doing much of anything - hope to get out in the yard for a bit, but this week as been cold - a touch of winter has landed - a few snow flurries and hovering around the freezing mark - but weekend looks to be about mid 50's and sunny.

I'm back to share another Mother's Day card.  This one is something different at least for me.  I did some water colouring and loved the outcome.  See for yourself:

I started by stamping my flower on water colour paper -( I used 140lb cold press by Cartiera Magnani - it's kind of an off white but nice and  smooth - love it), using versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. I then cut out the image using spellbinder labels 28 die.  I used distress inks to colour. To apply colour I used my teflon sheet or you could use an acrylic block to apply the ink to.

flower - spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, peeled paint, forest moss& pine needles
background - peacock feathers, salty ocean

Once the flower and leaves were coloured and made sure it was dry (which really didn't take that long, or you could zap it with a heat gun), I then proceeded to do the background.  This is where I was kind of nervous.  I wet the background with my paint brush, made sure it was nice and wet then dipped my paint brush in some distress ink and started to colour the background.  You can see where my brush picked up some of the flower colour and it bled into the background - love the look!! To get a deeper shadow around the flower I went back in with some ink on my brush, but with a drier brush and not so diluted ink so the colour was not too washed out - does that makes sense?

I used spellbinders A2 Devine Eleoquence  die (I think this is one of my favourite dies) for the lacey background, adhered this to a piece of light aqua c/s, then adhered my image to the center of the die cut.  For my sentiment - which comes with this set I embossed it on a piece of vellum using white embossing powder, which was then wrapped around the card.  Because you can see through vellum I was careful as to where to add a drop of glue to tack it down - underneath the bow and underneath the turquoise sequin.  This was then layered onto my white card base.  To finish off I added some sequins and a seam binding ribbon bow.

I hope you can see the watercolour effect on the background, because in real it is pretty awesome!

supplies:
stamp: Justrite - Mums
ink: versamark, distress inks -  spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, peeled paint, forest moss& pine needles, peacock feathers, salty ocean
die: spellbinders labels 28, & A2 Devine Eleoquence
paper: white 100 lb cougar, light aqua, watercolour 140lb cold press by Cartiera Magnana, vellum
misc: sequins, seam binding ribbon, white embossing powder

Well, that's about it for today, must head off to work.  (Why is it when we are at work all we want to do is go home and make cards - you ever feel that way?).  Hope you have a fabulous day, and thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.  Leave a comment would love to hear from you.

More Mother's Day cards to share, stay tuned.

Pauline

Mother's Day card #1 - pastels

I had a 4 day weekend this past Easter weekend, and I accomplished so much in  'card making'.  I'm working diligently on my Mother Day card orders.  I saw that Power Poppy's challenge this month is "Pop of Pastel' so decided to whip  something up that falls into that category and enter it into their challenge.  You can see all the details for the challenge here.

I'm using Marcella's digital image called "dancing with daffodils'.  This is one image that I will never get tired of colouring.  So many different colour combo's you could use, I can't wait to colour more.

After printing off the image, I pulled out my copics to colours -  but first I cut out the image using one of the dies in the spellbinder A2 devine eleoquence set.   Next I cut some MME paper using spellbinders labels 28, which was then layered onto a piece of Memory Box paper.  

I used some deep purple ribbon to pick up the colour in the purple flowers, which was tied on a diagonal.  Finished off with some glitter and some clear baubles from PTI.

Supplies:
stamp - Power Poppy digital - dancing with daffodils
ink - printer, copics - Y11, YR0000, YR000, YR01, YR02, YR12, YR15, YG01, YG13, YG17, YG67, V01, V12, V15, E21, E23, E25, E27, B0000, BG0000
paper - white, MME - miss caroline, Memory box
dies - spellbinders - labels 28, A2 Devine eleoquence
misc - glitter, seam binding ribbon, pop dots, clear baubles - PTI

Well that's it for tonight.  Lots more to share, see you again real soon,

Pauline

Has spring arrived yet?

Is spring ever going to get here?  You can hear the birds in the wee hours of the morning singing their songs, my bulb flowers are pushing through the ground, which is usually the sign of spring, but the temperatures  and weather are very slowly at coming around.  Rain and high winds yesterday and into today, tomorrow is suppose to be around 50F (10C) and sun! I'm just itching to get outside and putter around in the gardens.  

Since the outdoors remain untouched, I thought the next best thing is to colour up something pretty - like flowers! 

I had this LOTV image for a while now and it was just begging to be used.  So this is what I did with it:

I think you can see how this was done, so I will just list the supplies I used.

Supplies:
Stamp - LOTV
Ink - black memento, copics - V01, V17, BV11, G40, G24, G46, C00, C01, C02, prismacolour pencils for shading - french grey, sky blue light, true blue, sandbar brown
Paper - cougar 110 lb white, Webster Page (mauve background), dark mauve c/s
Dies - MFT corner flourish
Misc - sequins, glitter, stitching

I think I will add this to my sale bucket and put a nice Mother's Day verse inside.  Thanks for stopping in today, have yourself a  wonderful day!

Pauline