Birds #3

Hello all, and happy Labour Day! It's nice to have an extra long weekend isn't it?  And back to school starts tomorrow as well.  I know in the US a lot of schools have already started their school year in August.

Well it's been quite a day so far.  I was doing a load of laundry and my drier died! :(.  So good thing I have clothes lines. It's over 100 again today, so with that heat it dried them pretty quickly along with the bit of breeze.  Then about 5 min ago winds picked up and the sky darkened, thunder and lightening,  and then the heavens opened up - torrential downpour and strong winds.  When the weather gets this hot it's always a trigger for Tornadoes! (I did manage to grab the clothes before all this started.) The heavy winds also tore off our Gazebo top ( canvas), ripped the 2 corners and away it went!

Well lets get back to why you are really here - too see some more of our photographs.  These were taken around our area over the last couple of weekends. Enjoy the show.  (for larger image please click the picture).

 

 I was at the kitchen sink and just happened to look out the back kitchen window and saw this guy sitting looking for his dinner! Bill was able to capture some pictures of him.  He wasn't successful in his catch so off he flew after about 10 min.  We get these guys a lot especially fall and winter. 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I'm sure I'll have more to come soon.
Have a great day!

Pauline

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

Deepest Sympathy

Hello everyone.  I'm back today to share another card for my stash.  I always find I go through sympathy cards, more than birthday cards, or so it seems.

Today's card is using a die from Creative Expressions  called - Frames & Tags - Chloe. When I first saw this die in the package right away if thought of a sympathy card.

I started by sponging some pink and green distress oxide ink onto some white c/s, large enough to fit behind the opening of the floral die cut.  I then cut the larges rectangle stitched frame  from white cardstock.  This made a perfect border for the frame.

The designer paper is a piece of scrap from my scrap bin.  I believe it is Basic Grey - Two Scoops.

The die also comes with a small flower cluster die with a couple different sizes of flowers, so from the left over of the background sponged c/s I cut a few flowers.  I sponged some darker pink around the edges of the flowers to make them pop a bit.  I adhered them to the flowers that were on the main die cut.  Small pearls were added to the frame to finish off.

The sentiment is from PTI stamped in black versafine.

I appreciate you visiting today, enjoy your day!

Pauline

Mr & Mrs

Hello there!  It's been a busy week, so I didn't have much time for stamping, but I did manage to squeeze in a bit of time to make a wedding card for my basket.

No stamping involved just embossing, die cutting.

I started by embossing some Neenah 100lb c/s using Crafter's Companion Ornate Lace embossing folder.  I love the detail it gives, both the negative and positive side have so much detail, but I chose to go with the positive side.

I then layered a couple of die cuts from Spellbinders Elegant Ovals for the center, popping both layers up.  I used Creative Expressions  Mr & Mrs die for the sentiment. This was cut 3x then adhered together to more stability. 

Then comes the fun part, adding the flowers. Oh so many colour choices but as you can see I went with yellow, pink & blue.  Finished off with pearls, glitter dots and used my Nuvo clear glitter gloss for the flowers.

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Pauline

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

Thinking of you

Hi everyone.  Hope your enjoying your Sunday.

My card today is more for a 'get well' but since I couldn't find my 'get well' stamp right away I went with thinking of you.  I literally put this together in about an hour. We were heading to the hospital to see a friend of ours who took a bad fall.  She is in her 90th year, and she fell and broke her collar bone and pelvis in 2 places.  Bill had asked if I had a card we could use, and I did not, so this is what I came up with this morning.

I used Papertrey Ink - Corner Adorner February stamp set along with matching die.  I also used PTI- you been framed oval die. I started by sponging some PTI -pale peony & green parakeet on the background.  I then layered my frame on top.  I die cut the corner piece as well as some extra flowers, then I stamped the flowers and leaves using pale peony, berry sorbet, green parakeet, new leaf,  and harvest gold. I filled in some open spaces with some of the smaller images in the set using berry sorbet. I also added some stamped leaves under the flowers on the right side.

I have a few thinking of you stamps from PTI, but they were either too large or too small, but I did manage to find one from my Verve set that seem to fit.  I stamped this using smokey gray versafine ink, I actually put it in my misti so I could stamp a second time if needed, and I did.

I added some Distress clear rock candy glitter to the centers of the flowers to finish this off.

Jean loved the card, although I think she was having difficulty reading what I wrote in the inside, but I'm sure her husband will do that after we left.

Since I still have all the ink, stamps and dies out and guess I better make a couple more for my stash and just change up the sentiment.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

PS - The Great Blue Heron above, is one I took a couple of weeks ago along the creek in town.

Pauline

Romantic Bouquet

Hi there!  I hope your week is going well.  We are still in the middle of an extreme heat wave, temperatures in the high 90's feeling like over 100 with the humidex - just wicked!

Today's card came together fairly quickly, as there is only die cutting and embossing involved.

The floral background is embossed using Sizzix 3d embossing folder - Floral Blossom.  The top floral die cut is from Elizabeth Craft Designs  called Romantic Bouquet.  The paper behind this is made with inks.  I made this a while back when I was playing around with distress oxide inks, so not sure exactly what colour inks I used, but tI know I used yellow and pink tones.  I laid the die down on the paper and traced around it then cut it out and glued it to the back of the die cut.

I added some silk ribbon, prima flowers and pearls to finish this off.  I was going to add a sentiment to the front but didn't want to distract from the floral die cut.  This could be used for a wedding card,  or even a birthday.

Thank you for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Pauline

Enjoy today

Hello everyone!  Well I finally got around to taking pictures of a few cards I made.  Today's card is a card I made for Bill for his birthday a few weeks ago.  I really struggle with masculine cards, why are they so hard to make? What makes it even harder is I don't have a lot of 'masculine stamps'.  I have a few fishing images & digital, and a few scenery (and have already used them in the past), but this time I was looking for something that would represent Bill's hobby - photography.

When I was down at my local scrapbook store I saw that Kim just got in some papers from Alexandra Renke and there was a camera on one of them.  If you have never seen her stuff you need to google it. She has a lot of papers that have matching washi tape, which are just gorgeous! ( I have made and posted a few cards using both her papers and washi tape).

I purchased some papers then came home and literately threw this together as this was the night before his birthday by this time! I know hey, nothing like waiting until the last moment.

Anyway, here is my finished card.

I trimmed down the image and layered it onto a piece of black c/s,  stamped the sentiment (Penny Black snippets), then added some enamel dots.  I used Tim Holtz thinlet die to cut the green dp, then tore off along the one edge.

Background designer paper is from Bo Bunny, and the die I used for the green layer is from
Tim Holtz - Mix Media thinlits.

Once everything was adhered together I wrapped some twine around the top, and that's it!

Thanks for visiting today, back again real soon.  Have a wonderful day.

Pauline

Kind soul

Hello everyone! I was going to post the card I made for Bill for his birthday last week, but just haven't gotten around to taking a picture, so instead I will share one I did a few weeks back.

A few weeks ago I was playing around with my Magenta Nuance powders.  I have already posted the first card I made, so this is the second one.

I embossed the image - Wplus9 - Kind Soul - onto some Canson 140lb watercolour paper using white ep.  I then sprinkled powders in the colours and areas I wanted them, then spritzed with water.  I used my paintbrush to guide some of the colours, the rest I just tilted my paper for the colours to disburse.

After it was dry, I trimmed down the sides.  I layered it onto a piece of cold miri cardstock, then onto some green polka dot designer paper.

To finish off I added some dark pink silk ribbon as well as some Nuvo crystal drops on the leaves.  I ended up doing a second layer of dots because once the first drops dried they were hard to see.

Thanks for stopping by, see you again real soon.  Enjoy your day!

Pauline

Using up Remenants

Hello everyone, and Happy Monday.  I hope you had a good weekend.

Today's cards that I'm sharing are using scraps from 'what's on my table'.  You know the stuff that you stamp but don't like or wasn't what you had in mind once you start it, then you toss aside.  Well, I have lots of those.  I have a few 'masculine' birthdays this month, so decided to go through my pile to see if I could salvage any of it.  I had success.

These were quick and easy, so here goes:

First card, I already had the leaf background stamp off (MFT stamps), and I already and the die cut Celebrate (MFT) inked up.  Added a few other elements and this is the end result:

My second card - I had the sponging already done.  Not sure what I had intended this one for, but I stamped Flourishes LLC - an image from Country Roads in black memento.  I then stamped a branch from Penny Black in scattered straw along the side, top and bottom, just to fill in the open spaces.
I felt it still needed something, so cut some scrap paper using MFT Flag Stax dies and added a brad. Not sure if the brad is a bit distracting from the image. What do you think?

I wish all cards were this easy to pull together. I'm off to enjoy the afternoon outdoors.  I'm off today, so need to get some much needed weeding done.

Enjoy your day!

Pauline