Happy Holidays!

 

Greetings!  Today, I am sharing may twelfth and final card for the Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style, which is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  This is my first time to participate in such a challenge, and I am so glad I did it.  It helped me increase my stash of Christmas Cards, and even more so, it stretched me to create cards I would never have made otherwise. Linda's beautiful tag is shown below. 

I was inspired by the gold embossed background of Linda's tag, the overall red and green color theme and the Happy Holidays sentiment.  The background for my card is a complimentary image I received from Crafty Individuals when I ordered stamps.  The Happy Holidays image by Anna Griffin for All Night Media was given to me by a friend at work who decided to create all her cards on her computer going forward.  To add a bit more gold, I added pieces of a gold heart doily, folding it over the card base edges.  Vintage green seam binding, bits of tartan plaid twill tape, and a vintage button complete my card.  You have until December 17 to join in to be in the running for some generous prizes.  Thanks for dropping by.  Best, Yvonne

Butterfly Dream

Greetings! Hope you are having a pleasant Tuesday and first day of spring. It started out chilly here, but ended in the mid 70s by day's end. My post today is an entry in this weeks challenge at Make My Monday. For Week #41, we are challenged to make a spring-like card using a specific fold. This is an absolute first for me! I tend to be rather straight forward with card making. I admire all the fancy folds others fashion into cards, but rarely venture there myself! It was so kind of MMM to provide us with a tutorial recently on how to make the card. I began with vintage pink card stock, folded it as instructed and then applied various spring background papers from Crafty Individuals on the various folds. The main focal image is clip art, matted in black paper, also from Crafty Individuals, and the sentiment is a portion of a stamp by Anna Griffith stamped with Black StazOn ink. Embellishments include a white lace applique, a paper doily, vintage pink seam binding and pearls. I really appreciate all your visits and your comments really are an encouragement to me. Take care, Yvonne

Luck of the Irish to You!

Hoping everyone enjoyed St. Patrick's Day, yesterday! My mother's parents both hail from Italy, though they met and married here in the USA, and my father's parents were English and German, but I have always enjoyed the wearing of the green on this special day. My children's grandmother on their father's side was Irish, McBride was the name, so they truly can claim an Irish heritage! As we were leaving yesterday to visit my husband's twin sister who lives in a retirement community, he asked me if I had a St. Patty's Day card we could take along. I did not, but recalled purchasing these beautiful green doilies probably a decade ago, and a sack of Shamrock coins about the same time. Lickity split, I put this together and stamped a sentiment by Anna Griffith. A bit of vintage seam binding completes my card. My SIL was thrilled with the card, which she opened after we departed, so I am glad I was able to make part of her day! Enjoy the day. Best wishes, Yvonne

Make My Monday - Challenge 32 - Create a Scene

The challenge over at Make My Monday for Week 32 continues with the Nature theme and specifically is to "Create a Scene." This is probably the very first "scene" I have ever created. I marvel at others who do them, but I always think I don't have the right stamps to try. I really wanted to give it a go, though so I decided to go through my old wood mounted stamps and came up with this beautiful group of Horses by Inkadinkado, Pinon Silhouette by Stamp a Mania, Woodland Grasses by Hero Arts and a sentiment by Anna Griffith. I am also entering this card into the Anything Goes challenge at Pan Pastels UK's Challenge blog. My PanPastels just arrived in the mail over the weekend, and I thought I might as well dive in. I began by adding PP in a light blue, pale yellow and olive green to cream card stock. The colors a bit lighter here than in person, so I will probably adjust my values in the future. Being my first try with PPs, I wasn't sure what would work with them. I was delighted to find that Memento Ink, which I used for the Pinon Silhouette and Horses worked well. I also found that I could easily watercolor the Horses with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and was able to distress the edges to give the scene a vintage feel. To finish off the card, I added some flocks of birds from the Beyond the Sea plate by Artistic Outpost, a border punched with an EK Success border punch and some Baker's Twine and a button.

Bloggers' Challenge - Sketch Challenge - 8-19-11

Back from vacation and anxious to get back into my art studio. The challenge at Bloggers' Challenge for 8-19-11 is the sketch shown above. I began with a yellow card base. For my oval, I created an oval and scalloped frame with a die cut. The main image is a sticker matted on cream card stock. The rest of the card is embellishments of black and white checked ribbon, yellow felt rick rack, felt flowers and a sentiment by Anna Griffen.

Clean and Simple Stamping Challenge #150

I came across a new (for me) challenge today called the Clean and Simple Stamping challenge. Since I have been told often that my cards have a Clean and Simple style to them, I thought this might be a good challenge to try. I think I can learn a lot from the others who also participate in the challenges at this blog. For challenge #150, the sketch above is to be used. I chose bright colors to complement the wood block images and buttons. The sentiment is by Anna Griffen. Hoping to make some new friends through this challenge. Please consider leaving a comment if you stop by. Thanks and have a great weekend. Yvonne