Summer sketches

Hello everyone.  Is anyone else struggling  to get back at card making after the Holidays?  Well I certainly am!  I haven't made anything since mid Dec, but my card today is one that I made for one of my orders.

I'm using The Greetery - Summer Sketches stamp and matching die.

I started by stamping  the outline of the floral stem in green ink on the card base. I then stamped the summer sketches and cut it out.  For the top piece of the center layer I cut a piece of  background paper I made using oxide sprays. I die cut it with the rectangle stitched die which lined up with the white piece.  I added a piece of gold peel off where the two meet.

Stamped Happy Birthday in a dark olive ink.  Added some rhinestones to finish off.

Have yourself a wonderful day!

Pauline

Magnolia Sunshine

Happy New Year everyone! Did you stay up to ring in the new year?  Not I, I think I made it to 9pm, then that was it for me, as I am an early riser, usually up between 5 - 6 am on my days off, 5:30 for work days.

I thought I would pop in today to share I card I made for one of my card orders last year. 

I already had the image coloured for some time, it was sitting in my partially finished basket, so just had to come up with a layout.

The image is from Power Poppy - digital Magnolia Sunshine.

I used copics to colour, not sure of the colours as this one done some time ago.  I then used a SB oval die to cut it out.

The white frame is from PTI and the coloured layer underneath was some backgrounds I created.  The soft colours seem to work well with the image even though you can't see much of it.

To finish off I added some foam tape to pop the image above the frame, added some sequins, pearls and some silk ribbon.

I've been off on holidays since Dec 12th, and my intention was to make lots of cards for my stash, but needless to say I have not made one card.  I have a few days left before going back to work on the 6th, so I hope my creative juices start to flow.

I appreciate you stopping by, have yourself a wonderful day,

Pauline

Boxing Day Birthday

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Not only is today Boxing Day, but it is my birthday!!! Yay!!!!! I guess that means I'm another year older, Yikes!! LOL And yes I do get presents both days, Christmas and birthday.  My Mom always made sure to keep my birthday separate, as it should be right?

I don't have a birthday card to share today, but I do have a couple of Christmas cards I made last week, which I'm going to make a few more of the same and put these towards Christmas 2020.

Now the background idea was not mine, I saw these beautiful cards displayed over at The Foiled Fox, and right away I knew I had to make these backgrounds myself. I did 3 different coloured backgrounds, but the pink one, I messed it up so it went in the garbage.  But, I have the other 2 to share with you today.


First up is the blue - all done with distress oxide inks and MFT drifts and hills stencil.  Inks used were: stormy sky, peacock feathers, salty ocean, evergreen bough and chipped sapphire. Start by laying the stencil towards one side about 1/2 inch in from the edge, sponge the ink, then rotate the stencil to use one of the  another sides, and repeat until your entire cardstock is covered.  I also used canson 140lb watercolour paper for this.  I then spritzed the background with Imagine Sheer shimmer craft spray sparkle.  It leaves a beautiful sparkly background.  Not sure how well you can see it on the blue card, but think it's better on the green card to see.
I then cut out of gold mirri cardstock the tree.  The tree is from Inlovearts. I added a clear crystal rhinestone for the star and a couple of blue sequins on the tree.

For my second card again I used distress oxide inks and stencil - cracked pistachio, evergreen bough, pine needles, ice spruce, peacock feathers and twisted citron.
The tree die used is from Penny Black - Xmas tree border # 51-454  I cut it from two different green cardstocks, then offset them.  I also cut the front green piece using an MFT hill die, then stamped a sentiment from SSS, added some foam tape behind, then added chunky glitter along the top of the hill.  The tree die also has tiny star dies, so cut them out of the same greens and then adhered them here and there.

 

The pink background was very pretty, but when I went to emboss and branch on it I didn't like the way it turned out, so I will give the pink another try.

Enjoy the rest of your Holidays, thanks for stopping by.

Pauline

Merry Christmas..

Well cards are all mailed, presents all wrapped, house is cleaned and all the food is prepared as we are celebrating Christmas today with my family.  Mark, Anna and boys are on their way down. 

I wish everyone of you a safe and Happy Holiday.  Thank you for supporting me over the year, I truly appreciate your friendship.  May this Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter.  Looking forward to see what 2020 brings.  Warmest wishes......

Pauline

Peace, Prayers & Blessings

I hope you all had a good weekend.  Yesterday, Bill and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary - boy how the years sure fly! 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that one of my card orders consisted of sympathy cards.  Today I have 2 more to share with you.

My first card is using Alexandra Renke papers and washi tape.  I cut one of the birds using a circle die, then layered this onto another piece of white cardstock cut using Altenew Fine Frames Circle Dies. I like that this die allows the circles to stay together, or you can peel them apart and use them separately.

I also cut an Aliexpress floral die to lay behind the raised circle. I embossed the sentiment (PTI) using PSX detail platinum.

For my second card, I had some paper already made a while ago using Magenta Nuance powders. Every now and again I just decide to play and create different colour combo backgrounds to use at a later time.

I pulled out Simon Says Circle of Leaves die and cut this from white c/s.  I also added some washi tape (Aliexpress) along the bottom, then adhered my front panel to the coloured background. Sentiment is from PTI as well.  I added a couple of pieces of silver peel offs below and above the sentiment.  Pearls were added on the base of 3 leaves.

I hope I was able to inspire you today.  Thanks so much for visiting.  Have a happy day!

Pauline

Purple Iris

So excited for today!  After our company Christmas lunch, I am officially on vacation until Jan 6, 2020!! Just over 3 weeks off, can't wait.

Today's card is one I made for one of my orders.  I was going through my bucket of partial made cards, and came across this image already water coloured some time ago.  I wasn't fond of it after I coloured it, so just tossed it into my bucket.

I was running out of time to get this order completed, so when I came across this I knew I needed to make this work somehow.  Not sure why I didn't like it before, but it seem to pass the test once I had it completed.

This is a Penny Black image, which was gold embossed onto some Canson watercolour paper.  I used my Zigs to colour.

I added some gold mirri paper at the top and bottom corner to accent the gold in the image.  I added this to a purple card base, added some pearls to finish off.  I also embossed a gold sentiment towards the bottom.

I hope you are having a great day!

Pauline

Peace

Hello everyone!  I'm a happy camper as I have all my Christmas card orders completed, and all my Christmas cards in the mail as of last week! Woohoot!!!! Such a good feeling. I massed produced some of my cards that I shared in Oct & Nov which help speed things up, as well as I had a few left from last year that I made.

Today's card is one I made using Memory Box dies - Ruffled Poinsettia #94296 and Petite Leaf Frame #94318.  The 'peace' is from IO # DIE226-A.

I die cut the poinsettia and frame from white linen c/s.  I layered it onto some smooth white c/s, then onto some gold mirri c/s.  Love the look between the two different whites.

The 'peace' was also cut 3 times - 2 from white and then from the gold mirri, and adhered together.
I popped the poinsettia up so I could tuck the leaves underneath.  I then used a Nuvo clear glitter pen and coloured the poinsettia to add sparkle, so pretty in real.

I adhered the Peace along the bottom and then added some prills to the center of the poinsettia.

I made 5 of these!

Thanks for stopping by, have yourself a wonderful day!

Pauline

With Sympathy x 2

Hello.  Well I finally finished all my Christmas card orders as well as all my cards for my mailout.  I have 3 birthdays in December to make cards for, so that is next on my list.

Today, I'm sharing a couple of sympathy cards I made for one of my orders.

These were a quick make.  I used images from Alexandra Renke - just love her papers.  I cut out the images and layered them onto silver card stock.

I used some teal Bazzill card stock and used a stitched rectangle die to cut it out.  I then used Eucalyptus washi tape from Alexandra Renke (which goes with the images), and added a piece of this to the bottom of the teal c/s.

For my first card I used a die from Simon Says Stamps - Ecualyptus leaves

This one uses  a die from Simon Says Stamps - Cottage stems which seems to be discontinued as I couldn't find it on their website.

 

That's it for today. Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Nourish & Flourish

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a week.  I've been busy with another card order which I'm almost done. 14 cards this time, and the good thing about it is that I am just re-making cards that I have already posted, so this makes the process so much faster, as I just need to copy from my first card.

Can you believe that it is Dec 1 already! Yikes, still have Christmas cards to make, how about you?

Before I started this card order and right after I finished the last 19 cards, I made this one.  This is a digital image from Gracielliedesign called Nourish & Flourish. I love digitals for two reasons, does not take up space (only on your hard drive) and you can resize it to your preference.

I used copics to colour and believe it or not I actually remembered to write down the numbers this time!

This was pretty straight forward, so I will list the supplies below.

Supplies:
Image - digitial from Gracielliedesign - Nourish & Flourish
ink - printer, Copics - R30, R32, R35, R37, Y35, YG00, YG03, G97, G99, BG0000, BG10, C00, C01, C02
Paper - Bazzill Basics Paper pack - Vintage Lace, cougar white, Bazzill - kind of a sage green
Die - Aliexpress
Misc - silk ribbon, sequins, Nuvo glitter gloss aqua shimmer

Okay back to finishing up this order.  So glad you stopped by today.  Have yourself a wonderful day!

Pauline

Wishing you....

Good morning!  Hope you had a good weekend, and this posts finds you all well. I accomplished so much this weekend in the line of card making.  I finally finished my 19 card order, all the liners done, envelopes attached to each and all ready to deliver to my friend when we meet for dinner.

Yes, 19 sounds like a lot, but I was able to double up on some, some new ones and others were ones I had made previously but never have given to her in her previous orders, so this makes it fast for me as I had already made them once before! I made Christmas, birthday and sympathy.

Today's card is a Christmas one that worked up very fast.  I'm using Simon Says stamp set - Holiday Greetings Mix 1.

I started by embossing the image with gold embossing powder onto some white cougar 100lb c/s.  I added the 'wishing you a' and 'christmas' to complete the sentiment - also included in the set.

I used copics YG03, G97 & G99 to colour the leaves, and R39 for the red berries.

I had this gold shimmer oval already cut out and it seemed to work perfectly for this.  I stamped the card base using Simon Says Leaves & Berries Background stamp using versamark.  I then adhered the oval on top, added a felt poinsettia secured with a gold brad, then added some gold sequins to the image. Voila!

Thanks for visiting today, I really appreciate it.

Pauline

Sending caring thoughts

Hello everyone, I hope your week is going well.  While I continue to work on my Christmas cards, I change it up now and again with others.  I made this card a few weeks back, finally got around to photographing it.

The stamp set that I'm using is from The Greetery called Cotton Comforts. I love Betsy's sets, most are multiple step stamping, which gives it the realistic look.

I found cutting out the pieces before stamping makes it much easier to line up.  So once my floral pieces were cut out I stamped the branches then the flowers.  She makes it so easy.

I then cut some soft pink cardstock using The Greetery - Halfsies Dies, sponged some distress ink around the edges then spritz some metallic spray for some shine.

I also sponged some soft pink onto some white c/s, which my flowers would be mounted to.

Stamped the sentiment in dark brown ink and then die cut them out.  I love the variety of fonts she uses.

To finish off I added several pearls throughout the card.

I need to finish one of my card orders this weekend, as I meeting up with my friend Monday after work. 4 more to go for a total of 19 cards! Yikes.

Have yourself a wonderful weekend.

Pauline

Sassy Gal Nurse

Hello everyone! Today I have a different type of card to share.  My co-worker underwent surgery to remove his tonsils.  We put a little care package together and I was trying to come up with some sort of card a 'guy' would love.  I looked through my Art Impressions, but didn't have anything that would work, so hopped over to Bugaboo digital images and sure enough I came across Sassy Gal Nurse. Perfect!!

How fun is she??.  I used copics to colour her.  My first attempt I coloured her stockings black but did not like it, so thought hey, how about some fish net stockings. Love how these look! So as you can see not a lot of colouring on her, added some wood grain papers to give it a more 'masculine' feel to it.

Notice the little sentiment under her medical bag - well I am covering up a boo-boo! When I pulled my red copic cap off a spurt of ink fell right there, I tried to use my colourless blender to remove, but it seem to bleed more, so a sentiment was placed to cover it up.  I used Simon Says Stamps Sentiment Strips.  The nice thing about these strips is that you can use your laminator to adhere different colours of foil.  They are pre-printed in black ink so I applied some gold foil to it.

I also added some tooth hound washi tape, followed by a gold peel off.  Added some enamel dots to finish this off. 

Well that's it for me today, back again real soon!  Thanks for stopping bye, love when you do.

Pauline

Fir & Foliage

Hi, I'm back today to share another Christmas card. I've been busy mass producing the cards I posted last week.  Those are quick cards as they are all die cut and no stamping.

For today's card I'm using a stamp set and matching die from The Greetery - Fir & Foliage No2.
I started one night just stamping a variety of trees in greens, blues, pinks, gray's etc.  I really liked the pink and gray together, so from that I build my card.

I didn't keep track of the distress oxide ink colours as I was just too busy creating them! I sponged the blue background using Tumbled Glass Oxide and Broken China oxide inks.  I then splattered some white paint.

The snowdrift die is also from The Greetery.  I love the pierced snow drifts on this.I added some foam tape behind the front pink tree and adhered the other two in behind the snow drift. Sentiment if from the Christmas Eve set also from The Greetery.  I added some little snowflake sequins and some tine circle sequins to the trees.  I also used the decorative tree trimming set to add that decorative layer to the gray tree.

These stamp sets are so easy to use, as they are multiple step stamping.  Just use my Misti and everything lines up perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Christmas Shadow Box

Hi everyone! TGIF!! I'm back today to share another Christmas card.  I did this 2 weeks ago, finally got around to take a picture and now I can share.

When I was in London a while ago at my favourite stamp store Stamp Art, Nancy shared some new designs her team has come up with.  Well when I saw this I new I had to have the die right away.  So in my basket it went. I replicated her card and then I created one of my own.

The die set is from Sizzix - Christmas Shadow Box #663611

First card is very similar to Nancy's card:
- die cut the tree arch for top layer
- sponge some tumbled glass distress oxide ink on my base layer
- cut trees and adhere to base layer
- adhered some light blue shimmer fine tulle tot he back of the top layer
- cut deer and add to bottom right
- add peel off sentiment

And this is what I came up with:
- die cut the tree arch for top layer
- sponge some tumbled glass distress oxide ink on my base layer
- cut trees and adhere to base layer
- cut bunny from  gold shimmer and sprigs from white c/s and adhered to bottom right
- cut holy leaves from dark green shimmer and sprigs from  gold c/s and adhered to top center, then                 added 3 tiny gold beads
- added gold Merry Christmas peel off, as well as some peel off stars to the tops of the trees

These were fun cards to make and so simple as it is all die cuts.  I will be making more of these to add to my Christmas stash this year, and to fill some orders.

I hope your enjoyed my post today.  I appreciate you stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend.

Pauline

Chickadeer

I'm back today to share another Christmas card- YAY!!!!!!!  Card making has been quite slow lately, I have explained at the end of the post why.

A few weeks back I was going through my Christmas stamps and came across a few that I have not even touched yet.  It's just like Christmas finding new stamps that you kind of completely forgotten about! LOL.

So here is Stamping Bella's Chickadeer. How cute is this image?

Again, I used Polychromos pencils and gamsol to colour.  Once coloured I cut a some snowy hills using The Greetery Drifting die set. Love this set, it cuts and pierces.

Paper used is from Penny Black Holiday Trimmings. I was debating on whether or not to put a sentiment on the front, so played around with several and ended up using the sentiment from The Greetery called Sentiment Suite : Christmas Stamp Set and matching Sentiment Suite die set.  The one good thing about the sentiment sets so far from The Greetery is that the die set she created matches her last 3 sentiment sets. I'm probably not explaining it correctly, but if you go the The Greetery or click on the link's above I created you will see what I mean.

For finishing touches I used some twine and glitter.

I hope I inspired you today, have yourself a fabulous day!

PS - on the health issue I have been having with my RA - Rheumatoid Arthiritis - well I went for my yearly checkup with my specialist today in London and the reason my feet have been so sore and my right wrist swollen and left hand knuckle issue for months is that my RA is doing a major flare up.  I haven't had any bad flare ups in a couple of years. Normally my flare ups are very painful and only last 2 days, - the type I have is called Palindromic Rheumatism. My feet have been so sore and as of late they are so painful it even hurts to walk or to even rest my feet my bones in my feet are very painful, and my ankles throb terribly when I'm standing or moving. Here I thought it was Planters Fasciitis all along, had a pair of orthotics made for my running shoes and no relief, actually my feet were getting worse.  I never experienced pain like this before in my feet so believed it was something other than RA.  She sent me for xrays and blood work and will follow up with me once she gets the results back.  Card making hasn't been very fruitful lately, with being in pain I have no desire to stamp.  I still continue to dabble at it, but I really need to get going as I have a few orders plus my own Christmas cards to make and time is slipping away.  Sorry for blabbling on and thanks for listening! :)

Thanks for your visit today,
Pauline