FSC - New Year, New Stash!

As this post goes live, it is a New Year in many parts of the world! Over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge, they thought it might be fun to use some of your new stash you received over the holidays to kick off the New Year! For my own card, I received a new stack of designer background card stock from my daughter. The stamps from Vintage Circus and Big Top Circus by Oxford Impressions were a gift to myself and are making their debut with this post. I stamped the various images and sentiments with Black Memento Ink and water colored the images with a variety of Distress Inks. I elected to keep the colors muted to give a vintage feel to my scene. The embellishments are limited to some Black Liquid Pearls and some black and white Baker's Twine, which I also distressed to tone down the bright white. You will absolutely want to check out the other Design Team Members samples for inspiration, and then it is your turn! Please remember to check FSC for the specifics. I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

( I am also adding this card to Lisa Somerville's Blogger's Challenge - Celebrating the Circus Coming to Town!)

On New Year's Eve

As 2011 draws to an end, I want to thank each of you who happen on to my blog, on occasion, regularly or just this once. It was early 2009 when I decided to create a blog. I spent the next two and a half years talking to myself, which was okay! In May 2011, while recuperating from my second knee replacement, I stumbled onto my first challenge, and I truly mean stumbled. I had no idea all of you were out there, or perhaps a better way to say it is that I had no idea how to connect to all of you. I was utterly amazed to say the least. Since May, I have become a follower of a number of blogs that speak to me, and I have learned so much from all of you. I have had the honor of becoming a Design Team Member along with an outstanding group of artists at Fashionable Stamping Challenge and have made precious lifelong friends. Like many of you, I plan to make my annual New Year Resolutions over the next few hours. Concerning my art, my resolutions include: Continuing to develop my techniques, continuing to encourage others in their art and with my art, continuing to create and share my cards with all of you and continuing to learn from you. I wish each of you a very Happy New Year and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support! Best, Yvonne

Note: The card above is a birthday card for my brother-in-law. The stamps are part of the Steampunk Elements collection at Oxford Impressions. Inks are Distress Inks and Versafine. I am entering my card in Simon Says Anything Goes and Stampin for the Weekend (both "Anything Goes" themes.)

Whimsical Birthday Greetings

My brother-in-law, and one of his sons, both celebrate birthdays in early January. They are also both graphic design artists. One of them will receive this card for their birthday. I began with a Kraft card base and using Distress Inks stamped images from the Whimsical Melange plate by Artistic Outpost onto the card front. I stamped the frame and sentiment and pendants onto ivory card stock, water colored with Distress Inks, trimmed and mounted the images to the card front. Embellishments include Baker's Twine and Silver Liquid Pearls for a pop of metal. I hope one of them enjoys it.

We are currently away from home. I am once again working out of a duffel bag and wishing for many supplies I left back home! Cannot bring myself to leave some of my stash at our beach condo as then I will long for it back home! It does make you work with what you have, though, which is probably a good thing. How about you? Are finding time to squeeze some craft time in now that Christmas is over?

We will have a quiet New Year's Eve and Day here at the beach. Back home, in Pennsylvania, in the heart of Dutch Country, we celebrate New Year's with Pork, Sauerkraut, Mashed Potatoes, Bread Filling, and Gravy (also hot dogs) for good luck and wealth in the New Year. At the beach, in Delaware, they celebrate with Pork and Black Eyed Peas. Any special foods where you live? Have a great day! Xoxo, Yvonne

TIO - Steampunk Birthday Greetings

I was looking for a challenge today, and really could not bring myself to do anything more for Christmas. I have been making a list of challenges to check out and came across a non-Christmas challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On, which calls for a tag that is either Steampunk, Victoriana or Gothic-inspired. I have a number of birthdays coming up in January for men in my family so I decided to mount these gorgeous stamps by Sam Poole that I recently purchased. I checked the fine print, and you can either make a tag or mount the tag to a card, which is what I chose to do. I used a lot of Wild Honey and Vintage Photo Distress inks and embellishments include Copper Liquid Pearls and Black and White Baker's Twine. Unfortunately, I now find the challenge is closed, but that's okay. I'll definitely check out their challenges again. In the meantime, check out this blogspot for some gorgeous tags by their Design Team! Best, Yvonne

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Shortly after I began work on my Christmas Cards last year, I came across this image by Crafty Individuals. I immediately knew that it would be my image for this year's Christmas Cards!

Because of the volume of cards we send out, I forced myself to rethink the number of steps and layers this year. I purchased pre-cut, pre-scored, bordered cards and printed my sentiment inside directly onto the card stock rather than printing onto a paper liner. My husband keeps telling me sometimes less is more. I like how it turned out and have had positive feedback from recipients.

Whether you received one of my cards in the mail, or only via this post, please accept my sincere wish for you and your family to have a most blessed Christmas with your family. Merry Christmas! Best, Yvonne

Peacocks and other birds

Yesterday, we celebrated my granddaughter's and her daddy's birthday. Isn't it special that they share the same birthday? Her daddy is a Graphic Designer and very artistic. Since her birth, and the birth of her brother, he has made them a cake each year for their birthday. As they were old enough to speak, they chose the theme for each party and daddy took it from there. This year, my granddaughter's theme was Peacocks and other birds. I had the privilege of making the birthday invitations, and unfortunately forgot to take a photo of one of them. It was a beautiful bejeweled peacock, though. And so for her birthday card, I chose other bird stamps and sentiments from the same set by Stampin Up and fashioned the card above.
With my son-in-law's permission, I am including some photos of the peacock cake he made. My granddaughter selected lemon as the cake batter flavor. My precious granddaughter, daddy and the cake are above.

It's the week of Christmas and I am really not close to ready. How about you? Well take care. Best, Yvonne

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Traveling Around the World

There's a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge! For the next two weeks, we will be focused on the the theme "Traveling Around the World!" The skies the limit on this one. Will you choose a plane, a boat, or some other image to convey travel? For my own card, I decided to work with a brand new plate of stamps called French Flight by Artistic Outpost. A big thank you to AO who gifted me with the plate of stamps as a thank you for being published in the latest Take Ten Magazine with cards featuring AO stamps. I began with a white card stock panel and distressed it with Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. I stamped the script in Iced Spruce Distress Ink over the distressed panel. The various images were also stamped with Distress Ins and mounted either directly or with foam dots for dimension. I added several words in Festive Berry Distress Ink for contrast. Bits of red, white and blue twine and ribbon, some silver Liquid Pearls, and some very vintage buttons complete my card. You will be delighted with the variety of samples on display at FSC by the other Design Team Members. As always, there is a wonderful prize at stake and please make sure to read the few rules associated with this challenge. Thanks for dropping by and I look forward to seeing what each of you dream up! Best, Yvonne

MMM Challenge 28 - Red Ribbon

Good Monday Morning! Hoping you had a lovely weekend. My youngest daughter and grandson were with us over the weekend, which was lots of fun. My grandson is 11 months old and just so sweet! My husband and I went to his Holiday Staff Party for work on Friday night and my daughter and I went to see the Nutcracker on Saturday evening. It was extra special as my granddaughter and oldest grandson were both in the production. My trees are up, I have a good bit of shopping done and my Christmas Cards will be in the mail this week. Speaking of cards, over at Make My Monday, the Seasonal theme continues for December. This week, we are to include red ribbon. I chose my ever ready Sleigh Ride plate by Artistic Outpost. I water colored the image with Tim Holtz's Seasonal Distress Inks in Festive Berry and Evergreen Bough and distressed the panel with Iced Spruce. The image is matted in dark green and I used a red metallic ribbon that a friend gifted to me. The finishing touch is the German Scrap. I hope every one is well. Best, Yvonne

All Wrapped Up!

I recently learned of a new challenge over at Crafty Individuals called "All Wrapped Up." I just found Crafty Individual stamps earlier this year and I really love their style! In fact, the image above is being used on my annual Christmas Card this year! When I thought about what to do for my entry, I decided to use this gorgeous little red box. I stamped CI-254 on white card stock with Memento Ink and matted the image in black paper. I added a few crystal glitter gems to give the stars sparkle.

The box is wrapped with red and white Baker's Twine and finished off with German Scrap Christmas Bells. It's clean and simple and very classy, I think. I decided not to add anything else! Looking forward to meeting some new artists who share my delight in Crafty Individuals images. Take care! Best, Yvonne

MMM Challenge 27 - Seasonal "Glitter"

Greetings once again! 'Tis the Season isn't it?! Over at Make My Monday this week, it's a new theme for December: Seasonal. Anything goes as long as it has to do with the Season. The added requirement for this week is "Glitter." My card is nearly all glitter, but alas you will probably need to take my word for it as my camera isn't cooperating. I created a forest of evergreens for the background from the Sleigh Ride plate by Artistic Outpost with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I "loaded" the branches with Stickles Glitter Glue. The edges of the card base are also distressed with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. The little boy and girl are from the same set as is the sentiment. The tree in the little boy's hands is also glittered. A recycled tartan plaid bow and a "jingle bell" punched (Martha Stewart) out of green glittered paper and tied on with Baker's Twine. I am still hard at work on my Christmas Cards. It's an odd Christmas for me. Last year I had a knee replacement a few days before Christmas so we did not even have a tree! My dear daughter came up on Christmas Eve and pulled out a few decorations to make the house look festive and my best friend made Christmas Dinner for our whole family. This year, we lost all seven of our Christmas Trees to a flood in September. My dear husband and decided with needing to scale back in the next few years we probably don't want to replace seven trees. He is also recovering from surgery. So.....we purchased four Charlie Brown live trees and are just scaling back how many ornaments we use. A bit different, but it sure feels good to be able to decorate again! Hope all is well for you. Your comments are always read and valued. Take care. Yvonne

FSC - Dressmaking, Corsets and Accessories

Well it's a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge! For Challenge # 10, our theme is Dressmaking/Corsets/Accessories! I was really excited about our new theme. I have been dreaming of ordering these beautiful stamps from Oxford Impressions Dress Forms and Corsetry Plate for quite some time, and this gave me the perfect excuse! Images were stamped in London Fog by Memento and distressing was done with Milled Lavender and Spun Pink Distress Ink. Embellishments include a bit of ribbon and lace, a sewing needle and thread some buttons and snaps. Take a stroll over at FSC to see all the beautiful creations by the rest of the Design Team and we hope you will link your own creation! Please see FSC for the specifics concerning submitting to the challenge and to see the really neat stamps someone will win. Looking forward to seeing your creations! Take care. Yvonne