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

May you find Peace

I have a couple more Sympathy cards that I made last month for the card order I completed.  I know you're probably tired of seeing these types of cards, but I promise this is the last of them.

The first one is using The Greetery  Fresh Floral stamp and stencils.  The main part of the stamp consists of all the greenery, (plus individual flowers and greenery) which I placed in my misty to make sure I got a good imprint.  All the flowers are stamped individually.   I then used a couple of the dies from  Creative Expression die - Portuguese Collection - Lisbon. I stamped the sentiment onto some which c/s then layered this together. 

To finish this off I added some pink seam binding ribbon, small flower from Wild Orchid crafts and some greenery from the Memory Box Leafy Sprig die.

For my second card, I sponged some  inks onto some white 100 lb card stock using distress oxide worn lipstick and scattered  straw. I made sure the inks were good a dry before stamping the floral image with versamark and heat setting with gold embossing powder.  The floral set is from WPlus9 - Kind Soul stamps.

I used Creative Expressions Greek Island Collection - Santorini for the sentiment piece.  Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink - Willow, embossed in gold.

A few pearls were added around the edge of the sentiment to finish off.

I'm so glad you were able to stop by today.  Have a great day!

Pauline

Bontanical beauty

Hello and Happy Monday! 

Today I have a couple of cards to share with you, both of them the same, just changed up the colours and sentiment.

I'm using The Stamp Market Botanical Beauty leaf die,

I cut this one from TH metallic papers -and for the strips of paper, I just selected green/blue tones from my scrap bin..  I cut the strips approx 1/4" then glued them to the front layer.  Used my corner rounder for the top edges, then added some fun foam behind for dimension. Sentiment stamped in green ink.

For my second card, basically the same as the first just changed up the colours and used TH metallic papers in copper.  Happy birthday is from SSS.

A couple of CAS cards for my stash, one can never have too many!

Thank you for visiting today, have a great day!

Pauline

50th Wedding Anniversary

Hello! Just popping in for a really quick post today.  I was asked by a friend to make a 50th Wedding Anniversary card.  Of course I jumped at the chance, as I love making these types of cards.

There isn't a lot of explaining on this, so I'll just leave you with the details below of what I used.

Paper - Basic Grey, Penny Black, cougar white
Dies - Sue Wilson Creative Expressions - Scandinavian Collection - Stockholm, Quick Kutz for the '50'
Misc - lots of flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, bling, pearls, Nuvo shimmer pen

I'm glad you stopped by today, have a happy day!

Pauline

Easy breezy coneflowers

I'm back today to share another card I made for my card order.  I have so many digital images already printed off, I need to start colouring them and making them into cards.

These cone flowers are from Power Poppy. I decided to colour these in purple tones using copic colours V91, V93, V95 and V99.

I pulled out some cardstock to try to match the purples.  Purple tones are the hardest to match, just so many variations of tones.  In real the background cardstock is pretty close to the flower colours, but it doesn't look that way in the picture.  It's funny sometimes how the camera see's colours in a different way. For the embossed background I used a die from Nellie's Choice called Square Drops A, for some added interest.

Anyway, designer paper is some older Basic Grey - Wisteria. I think I hoarded this paper pack because I love it so much, but time to change that! I also sponged some antique linen distress ink around the edges of the floral piece once I cut it out using MFT stitched rectangle.

The layer behind the flowers is cut using one of the Postal Frames from The Greetery.

To finish off I added a few tiny purple rhinestones and some gold coloured silk ribbon. I also added some loose glitter from Art Institute to the centers of the cone flowers.

Well that's it for me.  I'm so glad you stopped by today.  Enjoy the rest of your day and have a fabulous weekend! Beautiful weekend here with temperatures in the mid to upper 60's and sunny! Perfect weather!

Take care my friends, hugs,

Pauline

Birding #2, 2020

So glad you were able to stop by today.  I do not have a card to share, but I have some of my photos that were taken April & May.  

Not a lot of explaining on these, so I will leave you to take a closer look at each but clicking on the picture.

These were all taken from the car window as we traveled the country roads.

The Blue-headed Vireo (below)  just happen to land in our backyard one day during spring migration.  Now that I have been working from home, it amazes me how many variety of birds actually stop on their way through. I was just lucky enough to see this guy stop for about 10 min then gone!

I hope you enjoyed these, I will have more in the coming days to share.  Have a wonderful day!

Pauline

Pure Prairie Bouquet

I hope everyone is having a good week. I've been busy at nights these past few weeks working on a card order for a friend.  Sometimes it's good to have an order to work on as it pushes you to make cards, where as if you have no orders, I seem to slide a bit, and then find it hard to get back at it.

So with that said, today I have a Birthday card I made for the order. I decided to colour up some of the digital images already printed off ages ago.  This one is from Power Poppy called - Pure Prairie Bouquet. I just love it, such a variety of flowers.

I used copics to colour, and used the pointillism technique for adding colour around the image.
After the image was trimmed down I added a couple of strips of gold peel-off's for some added interest.

Now you know you need some sparkle on the flowers, so I pulled out my container of Art Institute glitter. I have so much of this, and I hardly think to use it.  I used a couple of different colours on the flowers although the close up shot below, they all kind of look the same! Just love that sparkle!

A few gold sequins were added to finish this off.

I've also been busy going through my bird photography.  So many pictures to go through, but that's one good thing about a digital camera, you can delete the ones you don't want.  I should have some pictures to share with you soon.

Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for your visit!

Pauline

Homeward

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a good weekend, and are doing well.  Here we are, beginning of another month already, time is flying!

My card today is one that I actually made two of and then just changed up the sentiment.  This card is for my brother-in-laws birthday which is actually today!

I pulled out Penny Black's Homeward cling stamp.  I just love how fast these cards work up. Put it in your MISTI, ink it up and stamp, it's that easy!  I also used Canson 140lb watercolour paper.

For ink, I used Tombow markers, coloured the stamps and then spritzed and stamp.  Repeat process until you are happy with it.  With the stamp still in place in the MISTI, clean the stamp then add versamark to the rubber and stamp onto your image.  I repeated this twice to make sure I got a good impression.  I then pulled the image out of the MISTI, then added clear embossing powder, then heat set.

For the background shading, I used some Memento inks and my life changing brushes.

Sentiment - happy birthday is from Papertrey Ink stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink.

To finish off I added 2 enamel dots, picking up colours in the image.

The other card I made the same just added 'Father's Day', requested from my friend.

For great tutorial's on these types of stamps, hop over to You Tube and check out Penny Black's videos.

I appreciate your visit today.  Have a great day!

Pauline

Sympathy cards #2

I'm back today to share a couple of more Sympathy cards I'm making for a friend.

Both cards are using Simon Says Stamps stencil - Peony.

First card I used distress oxide inks -milled lavender, dusty concord, bundled sage & peeled paint.  I cut the border rectangle using MFT stitched framed rectangle, and my floral piece with MFT Stitched rectangle stax dies.  Sentiment is from SSS - Sketched flowers stamped in black versafine.  I added some silk ribbon, mulberry flower and some sequins.

For my second card, I used distress oxide inks - bundled sage, shabby shutters, scattered straw, fossilized amber and a touch of worn lipstick.  Sentiment is from Penny Black - sympathy sentiments, stamped in black versafine.  I used MFT - cross stitch rectangle to cut out the center then added some fun foam for dimension. To finish off some silk ribbon and pearls were added.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day! Keep well.

Pauline

Sympathy cards #1

Hello!  I'm back today to share a couple of cards.  I have a request from a friend for 6-8 sympathy cards.

My first card is using a stamp from Pinkfresh called Curvy Floral and also the matching die.  I stamped the floral using distress oxide inks.  For the background I used Border Bling: Chain die from Ink to Paper. I then sponged some distress oxide inks onto the white for a bit of colour.  Sentiment is from Penny Black, which is stamped in black versafine.  To finish this off I popped the floral up off the card and added pearls.

For my second card I'm using The Greetery products.  I started with the background  by stamping Sketchbook Roses onto a white panel using pumice stone distress oxide ink, then cut it out using an MFT  die. I also stamped the roses using black versafine onto another panel.  This stamp set is a multiple step stamping, so again I used oxide distress inks to add colour. I don't have the matching die for this set so I free hand cut it out.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and is stamped with grey versafine.  I kept this one flat and simple.

 

I've have another 2 almost done, will share those once completed.  Thanks for stopping by today.  

Pauline

Birding #1, 2020

Hello everyone.  I hope you are all doing well.  Sorry I haven't posted in a while once again, I'm just having a hard time creating cards.  I started one yesterday, but just haven't finished it yet. 

I thought I would share some of my photos that I have taken so far this year.  Mind you I take tons, lots don't turn out and only some I complete.

So lets get started shall we, the first one is from March, and the rest are from April.

First up is a Ring-necked Pheasant.  As we were driving down a country road one early Saturday morning back in early March something caught my eye along the road edge of a corn field.  We turned the car around and sure enough there was this beautify guy posing for us.  We had him for about 10 min, as he would scurry around, stop, pose and continue.

Next we have an Eastern Meadowlark, again out in the county early April.  On weekends during this self isolation time, we take a drive on the weekends, to see what we can see and always take photos from our car window.

Eastern Peewee- ended up finding 2 of these guys fluttering along the dirt road along a forest edge. Beautiful!

One advantage of working from home, is my 'make-shift' office is in my craft room with a window view. I'm always on the look out as to what spring bird with stop in my yard before continuing on.  Well, this particular morning we had a Hermit Thrush,  he ended up staying for 4 days. Such a nice treat!

One of our frequent birding spots not far from home we found a Pine Warbler.  We have seen them there the last 2 years so far, so looks like they came back once again this year.  Such a pretty warbler. It amazes me  how they can stay warm, as this particular weekend, we had snow and it was below freezing.

Another backyard visitor is the White-Throated Sparrow.  Beautiful colour markings on this guy, and their song is music to my ears.  I woke up on this particular day to his song.  We ended up have between 10-12 at any given time in our backyard, and these guys stayed for just over 2 weeks! But a few have come back!

I hope you enjoyed what I shared today.  I have many more.  Birding season has been slow for the spring migration which I think is due to the winter like temperatures and strong north, northwest winds.  We need the south winds to help carry them up.  

I am on vacation this week, which is the same week Bill and I take every year for the spring migration, but things are very different this year.  No provincial parks or national parks are open, which means 2 of  the Parks we rely on for our spring birding are closed to the public. To see anything you have to rely on woodlots or any hot spots that you may know of. Good news is the provincial government has allowed the Provincial parks to be open as of tomorrow - May 15th, so rain or shine we will be heading to Rondeau Provincial Park, which is on Lake Erie, so hopefully we will see plenty of Warblers.

As always, have a wonderful day and take care,

Pauline

Dahlia

I have another water coloured card to share with you today.  This flower is from StudioLight item
 # STAMPJBS0 - Dahlia.

I started by white embossing it onto a piece of Canson 140lb water colour paper.

To colour, I smooshed several colours of distress oxide inks onto my craft mat, misted with water and then painted away.

For the background, well lets just say, how I envisioned it, isn't the way it turned out. But rather than keep adding more colours I left it as is, as I was afraid I would get it too muddy looking and not even use the image.

One it was completely dried, I cut it down to size.  I also cut a border using Memory Box Woodland Border using SU Fine Linen, and adhered it to the bottom of the front layer.  Second layer is dark purple, and the base is also SU Fine Linen.

For finishing touches I added some tiny iridescent butterflies from Studio Katia and added some shimmer using Nuvo glimmer gloss.

I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for stopping by. Till next time.......

Pauline