Happy Anniversary!

My husband and I are celebrating our 12th Anniversary today at our condo at the beach.  He surprised me with a beautiful vase of pink tulips and carnations and red roses and bottle of French Champagne which we will enjoy with dear friends who are joining us for the latter part of the weekend.  Above is the card I made for  my husband.  It is difficult to see, but the card base was stenciled with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The bee image is by Gecko Galz and the focal image is by Art Declassified, as is the sentiment.  Embellishments include some tissue tape, a scrap of white burlap, a chipboard heart painted with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint, a vintage button, a snippet of seam binding and liquid pearls.  I am so blessed to have a partner with whom to share my life, and loves me.  As some of you know, my husband has been battling a very serious cancer since just after we were married.  He was initially given less than six months to live and this July it will be 10 years.  We are thankful for every day we have together and know that all the prayers throughout the years have been heard above.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  Hoping you are having a great weekend, too.  Hugs, Yvonne

Live in the Moment

Greetings!  It is Memorial Day Weekend here in the United States.  The unofficial kickoff to summer, and an opportunity to pause and remember all of our countrymen and countrywomen who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  I have been poking around most of May working on my May Tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013.  His gorgeous tag is shown below.

This is my first year of playing along with 12 Tags and I must say it has been worth the effort.  Tim really pushes you to try new products and techniques but holds your hand throughout the process with a wonderful tutorial.  

From my perspective, working with Idea-ology Remnat Rubs was new to me.  Love how the inky juiciness of the Distress Inks worked on top of the Rubs.  Finally found my filmstrip ribbon and used the filmstrip ribbon and my Wonder Tape for the first time.  I did not have the enameled tags but used a grunge board key that I painted with Picket Fence Crackle Paint, distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and added a ChitChat sticker.  My Classics#5  images arrived during May and I used them on the tag as well.

Thanks for stopping by!  Yvonne

Hello, Hello!

Time for a new Challenge over at Inkspirational and this time we are working from the sketch below.  I decided to work with a Dylusion Stencil to replicate the diamonds in the Sketch below.  

Pumice Stone and Tumbled Glass were stenciled on a 5x5 card panel.  The edges were distressed with Tumbled Glass and Distressed Photo DIs.  A selection of vintage buttons were applied to the panel and the sentiment was stamped with Black StazOn Ink.   The prepared panel was matted with black paper and mounted to the card base.  

I hope you will check out the Inkspiration pieces of my Design Team Sisters and consider sharing a piece of your own.  Our sponsor for May is Tammy of Creatively Me.   

Thanks for dropping by! Best, Yvonne

Togetherness

Greetings! It's time for another Word Wednesday over at 365 Cards. The word for this week is "Together."  As soon as I heard what the word was, I immediately knew which focal image I wanted use.  I have had this previously uninked image by Crafty Individuals for some time, and thought it  fit the bill.  I smooshed Iced Spruce, Antique Linen and Scatter Straw Distress Ink onto a Craft Mat, spritzed with water and inked the focal panel. The focal image was overstamped using Black StazOn Ink.  The matted focal image was layered over the prepared card base.  For the card base, I repeatedly stamped a bicycle by Recollections, added a bit of tissue tape and distressed the edges with more Iced Spruce and Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  Some Idea-ology tickets, also distessed with ink were added to the card front.  Black seam binding and black liquid pearls complete my card.  I look forward to seeing your project.  Thanks for dropping by! Yvonne

"Viva Las VegaStamps! DT Call"

This post is for the Design Team Call at Viva Las VegaStamps!  I have been hoping to join a DT for a stamp manufacturer, and have always liked the edginess of Viva Las VegaStamps so I was quite excited when I learned of this opportunity.  The call asked that "you include in this post three samples of projects that best represent you and your style."  I decided to chose from my 2013 posts and below are my three picks:  

My first pick was chosen as I love color.  I enjoy smearing paint/ink onto card stock to create my own backgrounds and I love retro stamp images.  

As If It Were Yesterday

I chose the second project to show my love of modern, eclectic art.  I love using stencils and tissue tape.  

Inspire

For my third choice, I selected one of my vintage-styled cards.  I love all things vintage and truly enjoy selecting embellishments and fibers to complete my cards.  

One for the Boys

Fingers crossed!  Thanks for dropping by! Hugs, Yvonne

King of the Seas

Greetings!  My post is for the current challenge over at Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge.  This week, the letter is "K."  I was so surprised when I went through the "K" section of the dictionary to see how few pages there were!  I never realized that before.  A number of the words I might have chosen I knew had already been used, and perhaps the one I chose is as well, but not that I am aware of.  I chose the word "king crab!"  I love king crab!  I can still remember the first time my dad brought  home king crab legs!  Yum!!!  The images are by Paper Artsy, were stamped with Black StazOn Ink, my go to ink, and water colored with Distress Markers.  Continue to love this challenge!  Thanks for dropping by.  Yvonne

Seaside, Fresh Air

Greetings!  It is time for my very post as a Design Team Member on the Pink Team over at Eclectic Ellapu.  The challenge:  Anything Goes!  My passion is card making, but for Anything Goes, I decided to decorate a plain white frame.  I began by smooshing Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Broken China, Salty Ocean and Rusty Hinge Distress Paints onto a Craft Mat, spritzing with a bit of water and dragging the frame through the paint.  When  satisfied, I stamped a variety of images onto tissue paper and added them to the frame.  Several sentiments were added to the frame and stamped directly onto the frame with StazOn Ink or Distress Paint.  For whimsy, I added several sea-related metal charms tied with a green burlap bow.  All of the images and sentiments are from Paper Artsy including the focal image at the center of the frame.  The bubbles near each of the fish are Chrome Liquid Pearls.  I hope you will consider joining us for the challenge and you will certainly want to drop by to see what the rest of the Pink Team has made to inspire you.  Thanks so much for dropping by.  Yvonne