Sandhill Cranes Part 2

Hello everyone! Well winter struck again.  Yesterday we had a day full of rain, then turned to a heavy wet snow late afternoon and into the evening.  The flakes were so big almost golf ball size, it was very pretty if you didn't have to drive in it. This morning everything is covered in white, so heavy the the branches are all weighed down, but it does look very pretty.   Looks like warmer weather for this week, hopefully that is the end of the snow.

I stepped outside early (still a bit dark) and took these pictures with my Tablet, so not the best quality, but just wanted to capture the snowfall.

Rather than a card today, I thought I would share some more of Bill's and my photo's from a few weeks back.


Mine:

 Bill's:

Thanks for visiting today.  Enjoy your day!

Pauline

All the best

Just working on some cards for my sale basket at work.  There are always people changing roles or leaving, so thought I would add a couple of these types of cards.

For my card today, I'm using MFT - Painted Flowers & Mini Modern Blooms. I started by die cutting the bottom edge of the white with Simon Says Stamps - corbel curved border.  I then layered this onto a piece of light green/turquoise gingham from MFT - Homespun Gingham

I die cut all the flowers and leaves from cougar white c/s.  I then stamped them using  all Papertrey Ink inks - Green Parakeet, Mint Julep, Sweet Blush, Pale Peony, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Enchanted Evening.

I arranged the flowers and leaves  then laid a piece of press n' seal over top to pick up my layout. I then stamped the sentiment in black versafine ink - PTI - Water cooler talk using my Misti. Added some silk ribbon and bow across the top, then adhered this to my card base.

I then laid the press n' seal back over the front of the card where I wanted the flowers to be then slowly peeled it off.  Most stayed in place, from there I added adhesive to the backs of the flowers and leaves and some of the flowers I added some pop dots to give it some dimension. I also added a small flower at the bottom right of the card.  Finished off with wink of stella pen on the flowers and some clear sequins.

The colours are so pretty in real.  Well that's it for me for today. Thanks for visiting. Have yourself a fabulous day!

Pauline

Luck of the Irish

I meant to post this yesterday, but it's been a difficult few days at work as our company is going through another re-org with job cuts  and our dept was among the ones to be cut.  But thankfully me and  the folks in my group all still have their jobs. There was just over 100 job cuts company wide within 4 depts.  It was such a stressful day, I was totally exhausted by the time I got home, hence no post.

In my last order I did for a friend she asked for a St. Patrick's day card.  I don't have much in this line, but I was able to find a  12 x 12 piece of designer paper by Authentique at the stamp store in London. One side is patterned the other side is made up of 12 cards to cut out and use.  Easy peasy right?

I cut out the card topper I wanted, layered it onto a piece of kraft cardstock.  I cut a flourish from dark green c/s using a die from Marianne.  Designer paper is some scraps from my bin.  I also added a peel off gold chain strip above the plaid paper.  For the sentiment (PTI), it is stamped in black versafine.  and then cut out using a Spellbinder label die.

I added some sequins to finish off along with some gold glitter to the buckle on the top hat, and a bit of glitter to the insides of the clover flowers.

Thanks for your visit, enjoy your day!

Pauline

Sandhill Cranes & More

Well here we are the start of another week.  Hope you had a good weekend.  Rather than a card to share with you today, I decided to post some of Bill's and my photos from the last month or so.

Yesterday during one of our outings we came across a couple  Sandhill Cranes - we did not expect to see these as were were looking for hawks. I have quite a few pictures to share so will spread them out over a couple of blog posts.

Enjoy the show, click on them to enlarge:

Pauline's:

 

 

 

Bill's

 

 

 

Up next, I'll be posting my St. Patrick Day card, then some  more photo's.  Stay tuned!

Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Flowing vine collage x 2

Well it's Thursday, and almost the weekend once again! My cards today are two more sympathy that I made for my card order.

As you can see not a lot of explaining on these, so I will just list the supplies for each that I used.

For both cards I sponged distress inks onto some canson watercolour paper.  I spritzed the first one to make the water marks, the second card I left as is.

# 1 - Creative expressions - with sympathy die, Distress oxide inks for the background - wild honey, picked raspberry, PTI - Pierced Feature Frames, Simon Says Stamps - Flowering Vine Collage die, paper is by Cosmo Cricket - sweet nothing, cougar 100lb white c/s,  Silver card stock, sequins

# 2 - PTI - Pierced Feature Frames, Simon Says Stamps - Flowering Vine Collage die, Distress oxide inks for the background bundled sage & tumbled glass, PTI - everyday classics (sentiment), white embossing powder, versamark,  Paper - Little Yellow Bycicle, cougar 100lb white c/s. scrap of blue c/s for the sentiment.  I think it is from SU but not sure, found in my scrap basket.

Well that's it for today, I'll be back soon to share another card.  Have a great weekend!

Pauline

Just because

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  Starting to feel more like spring time around here.  Yesterday it rained and very windy but temperatures were just above freezing.  This week is it is supposed to be between 4-7 C with thursday being 16C with rain, but then dropping after that. But each day is closer to warmer weather!

I've been asked for 'just because' cards, so this is what I am sharing with you today.

I pulled out my Stamping Bella - Mason jar of flowers stamp, stamped it using black memento onto some white cougar 100 lb c/s, then coloured using Polychromos pencils & gamsol. I already had the lattice die cut sitting on my table, so wanted to incorporate that onto my card.  The mason jar just fit perfectly inside one of my SB oval dies.

Designer paper was too pretty to only use a piece of so I decided to make this my main backdrop, then adhered it to a white card base. I added lots of sparkle by using by quickie glue pen and TH distress rock glitter.  The sentiment comes with the stamp set, stamped using black versafine, then used a MFT banner end die. I added some foam tape to raise it off the card.

Finished off with some sequins.   As always, I appreciate your visit, and any comments you might have.  Have yourself a wonderful day!

Pauline

Supplies:
Stamp - Stamping Bella - mason jar of flowers
Ink - Polychromos pencils, black memento, black versafine
Paper - white cougar,  Patck Trzynastego - Love in Bloom - Marta Pickarcyk ( I purchased this from Frantic Stamper along with 2 other paper packs :) )
Misc - seqines, TH distress rock glitter, quickie glue pen, foam tape
Die - Creative Expressions - Portuguese Collection - Lisbon,  Spellbinders Oval die

With Sympathy x2

I'm back today to share a couple more Sympathy cards that I created for my order.

My first card is using Altenew Dainty Bouquet. As this is a layering stamp, I used all 4 inks from the Altenew Rock collection for the stamping.

Sentiment is from Simon Says Stamps - Moments of Grace stamped in black versafine.  I used a MFT die to cut this out, then layered onto some soft gray c/s then a white cardbase. Added a small white silk bow to finish off.

My second card was created using a die from Creative Expressions - Wild Rose Edger.  I started by added distress inks to white cardstock - Distress Oxide spun sugar, wild honey & tumbled glass. Using the wild rose edger I cut this from bazzill yellow c/s. The sentiment is from PTI - birds of a feather and was stamped using smokey gray versafine ink.

I added a gold peel off up the side of the yellow and then added a peel off holographic butterfly.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Wishing you a fabulous day.

Pauline

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.

You're in my thoughts

Well here we are the last day of February already!  We got another 4 inches of snow yesterday. I'm so ready for winter to be over.

I had previously mentioned that I was working on a card order for a friend who has request several cards and 5 of them are sympathy.

Today I'm sharing one of those cards with you.

I've had this die set from Creative Expressions for sometime now, and often thought of using it but just never have.  As I was going through my dies, I figured this would work well for a sympathy card.
I also had some papers from Webster that I've been hoarding because I didn't want to cut it up as it has such pretty images on it. 

I was able to make use of almost the whole 6x6 piece of dp.  My card measures 5.5 x 5 7/8. 

I cut the die from white cougar 100 lb c/s and also cut the outer frame from vellum.  I then adhered the vellum to the back of the frame.  For the center part which is a separate die, I added some foam tape to lift it off of the oval frame. 

Sentiment is stamped in black versafine.  For finishing touches I added some silk ribbon and pearls.  This is really pretty IRL!

I appreciate your visit. Have a fabulous day!

Pauline

Supplies:
Stamp - Simon Says Stamps - Sketched Flowers (sentiment)
Dies - Creative Expression - frames & tags poppy
Paper - Webster pages, white, PTI Vellum
Ink - black versafine
Misc - silk ribbon, pearls, SU dimensionals

Masculine Birthday

As I'm writing this  (Sunday night for Monday morning posting), we are experiencing the worst wind ever!  With gusts up to 90KM - (110 KM at noon -between 50 - 60 MPH).  Overnight it still is pushing gusts of 75KM/hr - not sure how much sleep I will get as it is coming from the southwest and that is my bedroom side.  Might have to put the ear plugs in!  We have 34 yr old Cedars in the back yard which are about 30ft tall and with this wind they are swaying and bending, I just hope we don't loose any. I also saw on the weather channel that the winds are so strong on Lake Erie it is actually move chunks of ice off the shore and up onto the roads.

This is the weather alert for our area:
Summary

Major wind storm across the regions.

Very strong southwest winds with frequent gusts of 100 to 110 km/h will continue in the wake of a sharp arctic cold front blasting across the region.

Higher wind gusts of 120 km/h are possible long the shores of the Great Lakes.

The damaging winds will continue tonight, then will gradually start to diminish early Monday morning

Power outages, damage to trees and structures are being reported across the regions.
Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur. High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break.

--------------

Well enough of that, lets get to my card shall we.  My card today is one I did a couple of weeks ago. Yes another masculine card!  It all started out by me playing around with some spray inks.  These inks are by Stampzia - colour wash jewels.  I've had these for about 10 years.  I picked them up at one of the Heirloom scrapbook shows over in Detroit, and actually Stamp Zia came to Chatham.  My friend contacted her and she was willing to come the day before the show and do a class for us.  We had about 12 people or so, and we worked with her stencils and sprays. It was awesome!

The molted looking background is the spray background.  Her sprays are very rich in colours, I used three or four colours on this.  I don't remember the exact colours.  So after I did this it sat on my desk for a bout a week as I was trying to figure what to do with it.  I pulled out some TH sizzix flower/stem dies as well as a set from Concord  & 9th called layering leaves.  I cut them from metallic papers.  I tried a couple of different colours of blue for the frame, but settled on this PTI ocean tides.

For the blue background I stamped MFT wood grain using the same ink as the cardstock.  I'm not sure of the colour I used as I seem to have used my last piece for this card. Hmmm darn!

I stamped a happy birthday and embossed in white on a strip of black c/s. To finish off I added a brass/copper coloured metallic dot.

Thanks for visiting today.  Have a great day!

Pauline

A new little someone

In between doing cards for another card order which is mainly Sympathy cards, I decided to change it up and bit and do a baby card. 

Since I already had a baby girl card in my stash basket I decided to do a baby boy card.  I die cut the elephant then layered it onto some vellum and then kraft c/s.  Paper is from Echo Park -Bundle of Joy.  I stamped the sentiment in rich cocoa memento ink, then added a couple of enamel hearts.

The elephant did not have an 'eye', so I pulled out my tiny hole punch and since I have not emptied the punch in a while I was able to find a pre-punched black dot.  I also added a pop dot behind the ear to lift it up a bit.

Finished off with some ribbon and lace.  I will list the supplies I used below.

Have a fabulous day!

Pauline

Supplies:
Paper - Echo Park - Bundle of Joy, PTI Kraft, Cougar white, PTI polka dot vellum
Ink - Memento - rich cocoa
Dies - Memory Box - stitched elephant, PTI - Tag sale #4, Simon Says - stitched circles
Stamps - PTI - baby button bits for the sentiment
Misc - PTI - aqua mist ribbon, lace, enamel hearts (doodlebug)

Birthday Balloons

Good morning.  Hope your weekend was good.  On Saturday was my grandson's 12th birthday, so of course I made him a card, and at least this year I remembered to take a picture.

I really don't have a lot of stamps that focuses on kids but balloons are always good right? With some stamping, die-cutting this is what I came up with.

Once I die cut the balloons and stamped on top of them, I sponged ink in the coordinating colours on my background where the balloons would go.  I then placed the balloons where I wanted them and then stamped the string. I really like the birthday stamp set as it has 4 different string sentiments. I then stamps some stars around and then popped the balloons up over the string.  I double popped the middle balloon as I wanted that one center focused.

Stamped the sentiment with versamark and white embossed onto some black c/s.  I then took a fish
tale banner die and cut it out, then popped this up as well. For the background orange paper and dry embossed a Memory Box die onto it called - All Star Detail Plate. You can't see much of it, but it adds some detail to it rather than have plain c/s.

To finish I added some enamel dots, an enamel heart (just love this little heart), cut a # 12 out of orange c/s and then used my wink of stella clear pen for a bit of sparkle on the star balloon.

In hind sight I should of make a couple of these cards at the same time.  Always good to have a few extra of these types of cards!

I appreciate your visit today, wishing you a happy day!

(When we went to bed last night it was snowing and it is still snowing this morning! Looks like we need to do some shoveling today - it's Family Day in parts of Canada so we have today off!)

Pauline

Supplies:
Stamps - PTI - Birthday Strings, 
Die - PTI birthday balloons, Mix & Max Confetti Die, Tim Holtz - typeset, Memory Box - All Star Detail plate
Paper - white, black & orange
Ink - PTI - orange zest, tropical teal, green parakeet, harvest gold, kraft, Black versafine, Versamark
Misc - white eb powder, enamel dots, wink of stella clear pen

Love... with all my heart

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Today's card is one I made for my BFF's (Nancy)  husband to give to her.  I was going to post it earlier today, but thought if she hadn't received it yet, I didn't want to spoil her surprise.  But.... she received it this morning :).

I had fun making this one.  Not a whole lot of explaining on this one as you can see, mostly die cuts, so I will just list the supplies below.

Supplies:
Paper - Glitz paperpack - Pretty in Pink, white, bazzill pink, gold mirror paper
Die - PTI Shape Shifter Oval #4, Heart dies, SSS Love Die
Ink - black versafine, PTI - pale peony (sponged ink behind the hearts)
Stamp - PTI - From the Heart set
Misc - sequins, washi tape, ribbon, flowers, and lace

Wishing you a lovely day!

Pauline

Quick topper cards

Hello.  I'm back today to share a couple of cards I made recently for my card basket.  The paper pack is from The Paper Boutique and this particular  line is - Dawn Chorus.  I fell in love with these papers, small birds, leaves, feathers, and the colours are so pretty.  In the back of the paper pack are some card toppers which makes card making a whole lot easier.  So far I have made 2 from this paper pack.

Not a whole lot of explaining on these, so I will let you look at my cards and I will list the supplies below.

 

Supplies:
Card # 1
Dies - PTI - Shape shifters circle #4
Paper - The paper boutique - Dawn Chorus, MME - woodgrain paper, white, soft pink and medium brown
Misc - skeleton leaves in gold, pink silk ribbon, EK Success border punch, pearls

Card # 2
Dies - MFT square stitched rame
Paper - The paper boutique - Dawn Chorus, white, Bazzill blue, MFT Snowcone,
Misc - flowers, silk ribbon, glittered rhinestones

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Pauline

Live for today

Well it's the end of another work week! Hope you all had a good week.  I've been trying to work on some masculine cards as of late but have been struggling.  I find these so hard to do, mainly because I don't have a lot of masculine stamps other than leaves and trees. 

 I'm using all  Papertrey Ink; dies and stamps for my card.

I started by die cutting the Mighty Oak Tree so I could use the leaves.  I then stamped the leaves using PTI inks onto the die cut leaf.  White background is cut using the PTI: Noted Pinked A2 Vertical die set.  

I stamped the sentiment from PTI: Through the trees using black versafine ink, then cut it out using PTI Nesting basics pierced retangles.  I popped this up on the center of my card, then adhered the leaves.  Added some rhinestones to finish off.

I appreciate your visit today, have a wonderful weekend!

 Pauline