Time Flies!

Happy Monday!  There's a new challenge over at Make My Monday.  This is the final week to focus on Men and this week, in particular, we are to include "Time" in our project.  I chose to work with mostly Artistic Outpost stamps from both the Loverly London and London Elements plates.  The "Time Flies" stamp is from Hampton Arts.  The background Clock stamp was inked with London Fog Memento Ink.  All other images were inked with Festive Berries Distress Ink or Black StazOn Ink.  Images and the card base were distressed with Old Page Distress Ink.  Embellishments include Black Liquid Pearls and a spinner by Idea-ology.  Don't you just love the pigeon?  Have a great night.  Best, Yvonne

Time for a Hug!

There's a new challenge over at PanPastel UK Challenge.  This week, we are to include something on our project that represents springtime.  I decided to focus on butterflies.  The card base was colored with various yellow, gold and red PanPastels.  A paper doily and white guaze was layered onto the card next.  The focal images are from Minature Books by Crafty Individuals.  The background images are also from Crafty Individuals, as is the sentiment, which is from CI-277. A bit of Venice lace from The Funkie Junkie Boutique accents the woman.  Pearls, seam binding, a miniature tag and a snippet of white an yellow Baker's Twine complete my card.  I'll also be entering this card at The Frilly and Funkie's Sunday Share.  Thanks for stopping by.  Yvonne

Means of Travel

I just received my first Katzelkraft stamps this week!  This card features the Transportation plate of stamps.  The images were stamped on glossy paper with Black StazOn ink and mounted to red and black card stock and a kraft card base.  Embellishments include white burlap from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, silver liquid pearls, vintage black seam binding and an Idea-ology binder clip.  Thanks for stopping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Creme de la Creme

Happy Friday, everyone!  There's a new challenge over at Bloggers Challenge.  This week, Lisa is asking us to include background paper that we make ourselves.  This is one of my weakest skills so I really appreciated the chance to work on this needed talent.  I began with a piece of white card stock and smooshed Distress Inks, one at a time onto my craft mat, sprayed each with water and then sopped up the ink mixture with the card stock.  Colors used:  Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint.  Artistic Outpost stamps from the French Flight plate were stamped over top with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  The focal images, from the same stamp plate, were stamped with Black StazOn Ink on more white card stock and each was distressed with Old Page Distress Ink and mounted to the background paper, which was matted to green card stock and mounted to a card base.  Finishing elements include a chipboard Fleur de Lis distressed with Black Soot Distress Ink, vintage seam binding, and an Ideology Light Bulb tied with a snippet of Burlap String from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. 

Treasured Hope

Greetings everyone!  This post is for several challenges.  First, it is for Frilly and Funkie, where the challenge is to create a project using at least two repurposed items.  I began with a white card base and stamped various complimentary stamps from Crafty Individuals using Black StazOn ink to create a pleasing background.  A Cabinet Card was die cut using a repurposed liner from a candy box from this past Christmas and distressed with Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord Distress Inks.  The clip art is from a Miniature Book by Crafty Individuals.  A bit of black netting, which originally encased our Easter ham, was added to give the girl in the photo some added drama.  I added black photo corners to pop the colors of the image.  The sentiment by Stampa Rosa was stamped with White Versamagic Ink onto Black paper and framed with a gifted metal frame.  The chipboard flower was painted with Ranger Picket Fence Crackle Paint and colored with PanPastels.  Black Liquid Pearls create the flower center and offset the cabinet card.  Gold leaves and a seam binding bow complete the card.  This card is also for the PanPastels UK Challenge, which asks that we Add a Flower on our project and for the Simon Says Stamp and Show your Favorite Word - Hope! Thanks for stopping by.  I truly read and treasure every comment left.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Paris in Springtime

Greetings! Today I have a card to share with you that I made recently. My card features images from the Paris Exposition plate by Artistic Outpost, which is one of my all time favorites. I confess, I love all things French! It is probably because I had the privilege as a child of having French Class from 4th through 12th grade. I loved every moment of it! The card base was wrapped with oyster scalloped lace and layered with a pink doily and brown Cabinet Card Die Cut, which was stamped with several images in white Versafine ink. Additional images were stamped in Sepia Versafine ink on watercolor paper and adhered to the Cabinet Card. To give that springtime feeling, I painted portions of the woman, and the lace along the bottom with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. Embellishments include some very special buttons, appliques and a seam binding bow. This card is also for the Sunday Share over at Frilly and Funkie. Hoping springtime is bring rebirth to you and your family. Best wishes, Yvonne

Birds Abound

Happy Monday everyone! I have a post to share with you tonight of a card I created for this week's challenge at Make My Monday Challenge. During April the theme continues to be Men and Boys and this week, specifically, we are to include Birds or Animals. When I contemplated my design, I decided I wanted to feature a boy and birds and thus the Bluebird plate from Artistic Outpost came to mind and all images shown are from this plate. The images were each stamped with Black StazOn ink on white card stock, trimmed , water colored with Distress Inks and distressed with Old Page, Broken China and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The elements were layered on designer background paper. Finishing touches include black and gold striped ribbon, black liquid pearls, vintage blue buttons, cheese cloth, a bird feather and burlap string.
If you haven't joined in at Make My Monday yet, check it out. It is a top notch challenge blog. Thanks for dropping by. My best to you, Yvonne

Butterflies and Lace

Welcome to the newest challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenge! For the next two weeks, we are seeking submissions of projects that include heat or dry embossing. For my card, I began with a blue-violet card base. White card stock was dry embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. I had some difficulty initially figuring out how to incorporate imagery inside the embossed frame, but things seem to come together when I added the quote above by Helen Keller from the Quote and Quotables plate by Artistic Outpost and some butterflies from the AO Flower Market plate. The butterflies were watercolored with Broken China, Old Paper and Milled Lavender Distress Inks and sparkled up with some Milled Lavender Distress Stickles. The beautiful paper doily border can be purchased at the Funkie Junkie's Boutique. A few pearl embellishments and some Winter White seambinding complete my card. I hope you will pop on over to FSC to see the exquisite designs that my design team sisters have crafted to inspire you! We hope you will create a submission of your own to be in the running for a top prize. As we are a stamping challenge, we must be able to clearly see stamping on your submission and we ask that you not include digis. Complete details can be found at FSC. Good luck to each of you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Best wishes, Yvonne

Secret Garden

There's a new challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On. This time, the challenge is to create a tag representing the book "Secret Garden." My first thought was to use the scroll work image from the Windows and Doors plate by Artistic Outpost. After stamping it with Black StazOn ink, and trimming it, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink was watercolored onto the stamped image. Using multiple images from the Flower Market plate, also by Artistic Outpost, images were stamped on the tag front to create the background. More images were stamped, trimmed and watercolored with Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint and Tattered Rose Distress Inks and adhered to the tag. Embellishments include beautiful lace purchased from the Frilly and Funkie Boutique, Winter White seam binding, a paper bird, a button and a binder clip. I am also entering this tag over at Frilly and Funkie's Sunday Share.

Study in Red and Black

This post is for the new challenge over at Blogger's Challenge. This time around, we are working from the sketch above. I recently was gifted with a package of wine labels from a new and precious friend, who is a fellow blogger and card artist. My card is made using one of these beautiful French wine labels. I also stamped a new stamp image I acquired recently from Recollections on beautiful cream colored watercolor paper with Barn Red Distress Ink. The stamped image, wine label and background paper were all matted with black paper for definition. Scalloped edge oyster colored lace, a bit of black and gold ribbon and a button I picked up earlier today complete my card. For a change of pace, I photographed my card by our gold fish pond. My poor fish could not understand why mommy wasn't feeding them! (I took their food out with me and fed them just after finishing my picture taking.) I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Best, Yvonne

Black and White plus One Color

Hope everyone is having a great week. I am having an artsy week. Monday evening, I went to an art show at my daughter's place of work. Beautiful watercolors and printmaking. Last evening, I began a new class on Pastels at our local Art Association. Sadly, not enough signed up, so the class is canceled. Tonight, my two oldest grandchildren art having Art Night at their school. I will view their art projects and they will also sing. Fun times! My post today is for the most recent Bloggers' Challenge to make a project that is Black and White and a Splash of One Other Color. I decided to use the images from Artistic Outpost's Secretary Pool and stamped them directly onto the card base. The handles of the scissors and the pencils are watercolored with Festive Berries Distress Ink. I resisted the urge to add distressing around the card edges as it would have introduced another color. Embellishments include a strip of ribbon, a re-purposed button, Scrapper's Floss, some color appropriate paper clips, a snippet of black crochet lace and some black Liquid Pearls. Now, who to send this off too!!! Have a great evening. Best wishes, Yvonne

April Blog Hop for Artistic Outpost - Paris Exposition

Greetings! It is time for another Blog Hop at Artistic Outpost. For April, we are featuring projects of all sorts made with the beautiful collection of images that make up the Paris Exposition plate. The moment this set was released, I knew I had to own a set for myself. I LOVE all things French, and particularly Parisian. I decided to branch out from card making for this project when I came across this adorable wooden purse shaped box at the craft store. I gave it several coats of butterscotch acrylic paint. Wanting to keep to mostly black images, I decided to stamp some of the balloon images with London Fog Memento Ink to give the illusion of being off in the distance. I tried my hand at stamping some of the images on tissue paper before applying them to the surface of the bag and distressed them with Scattered Straw Distress Ink. Most of the images on the face, top and sides of the purse were stamped with Black StazOn Ink. The bag was heavily distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, though I'm not sure it shows well in the photos.

Black paper was border punched in a patterned that reminded me of Fleur de Lis and attached around the bottom of the bag.

A chipboard Fleur de Lis was painted black and added to the opposite side of the bag along with an Ideology light bulb some ball and chain links and a Philosophy Tag, also by Ideology. It was fun to try a different surface with this project.

I hope you will hop on over to the rest of the Design Team for their take on this gorgeous stamp set.

Gerrie Johnnic, Lisa Somerville, Suzanne Czosek, Anita Houston, Linda Coughlin, and Tracy Evans

Men and Their Toys

Thanks to my latest follower, Anna, for joining in. There's a new challenge at Make My Monday. We continue with the Men and Boys' theme. This week, we are to make a project that reflects a Male Sport or Hobby. I chose to use the SteamPunk plate images by Artistic Outpost in honor of my stepfather who has always had a passion for Trains and Railroads. As this project is also for the current challenge at PanPastel UK which is "One for the Boys," I began by applying three different shades of PanPastels to white card stock. The station and train were stamped in Black StazOn ink over top the prepared card stock. The gentleman, and other images were stamped on white card stock, as well. The gentleman was watercolored with Gathered Twigs and Tattered Rose Distress Inks. The pieces and the base edges were all distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The Gentleman's Choice badge was inserted into a bottle cap and layered onto the card front with burlap. An Ideology Philosophy Tag is attached with a Memo Pin. A snippet of black and gold ribbon and chrome liquid pearls complete the card. Thanks so much for dropping by. Best wishes, Yvonne

Jot This Down

Thanks to my latest follower, Annie! Nice to have you join me. While working with the Secretary Pool stamp set from the March release for Artistic Outpost, it occurred to me that that this dear pair of children standing in front of the alphabet from the Think and Wonder set, also by Artistic Outpost, would work well together. This may be one of my all time favorite stamp images. The versatile alphabet from Secretary Pool was stamped with Festive Berry Distress Ink onto Kraft card stock and matted and layered to the card front. The children were layered and mounted next. I tucked in a ruler and numbers from the Whimsical Melange stamp set and finished off with some sentiments , a paper clip and pencils from Secretary Pool. The bottle label and "love" are from Apothecary. Many of the images were distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Simple embellishments include repurposed ribbon, an Ideology pen nib, and binder clip, some vintage lace, a snippet of burlap, some red Scrappers' Floss and a vintage button. Thanks for dropping by today! Best wishes, Yvonne

Focus on Words

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. We took a quick trip to the beach Saturday afternoon and came back home Sunday evening. Short but sweet! I have a card to share with you today that I created for the current challenge over at Frilly and Funkie called I'll Take Your Word for It. I chose this quote by Audrey Hepburn. It is part of a set called Quote and Quotables by Artistic Outpost. It is stamped with Black StazOn ink onto gray card stock. The woman, also by Artistic Outpost, is part of the Gatsby set. She is stamped with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink onto Glossy Paper and matted with black paper and layered onto a pink paper doily. Snippets of lace, a vintage button, pink liquid pearls and repurposed seam binding and pink burlap twine from an order at Frilly and Funky Boutique, along with an embroidered applique that was tucked into my order along with some other sweet tidbits adorn and complete my card. Thanks so much for dropping by today. I love when supplies arrive wrapped so pretty and parts of which can be repurposed! Best wishes, Yvonne

Dear Little Boy

Greetings! Hope everyone is having a great start to the weekend. I have a card to share with you that I made recently. It is made up of stamped images from CI-328 and a clip art image from the People and Places Miniature book, both by Crafty Individuals. Simple embellishments include a tiny piece of burlap and a binder clip, some brown twill tape and dyed cheese cloth and vintage buttons. Enjoy the weekend. Best wishes. Yvonne

Angel of Hope

This is my second post for today, so please scroll down if you care to see the first! I created this tag for a challenge over at Dragons Dream Tag It On. This time, the theme is Angels and Demons. I decided to focus on Angels rather than Demons and the "Hope" rather than "Despair" they give. A pink Cabinet Card die cut by Tim Holtz was studded with White Liquid Pearls and layered above and below with pink and white paper doilies. The matted focal image is a clip art image from Crafty Individuals and the torn paper heart is stamped with a CI complimentary bird and touched with Ranger Stickles. The sentiment is by Stampa Rosa. Vintage seam binding in fucsia and pink and a large decorative metal brad complete the tag. Dragons Dream Tag It On Blog has really unique themes if you are looking for a unique challenge site. Thanks for stopping by! Yvonne

Summertime Breeze

There's a new challenge over at Crafty Individuals Blog for the month of April. The theme is "Time for Summer." It was a bit refreshing to move away from springlike cards and make a card for summer. Beginning with a mousse soffle card base, lace was dyed with Broken China Distress Ink and layered onto the bottom of the card base. Vintage sea colored seambinding was attached in ruffled fashion over the lace. A clip art image from the People and Places Miniature Book by Crafty Individuals was matted with gold metalic card stock and mounted to the right bottom of the card. Using the CI-278 stamp set, the sentiment and bathing beauty were stamped on card stock with Black StazOn ink. The umbrella was watercolored with Scatter Straw and Broken China Distress inks and covered with Rock Candy Distress Paint. Seagulls were stamped directly onto the card front. Simple embellishments include cheese cloth, seashells and pearls. There are lots of inspiration pieces over at CI's blog. Why not check them out and then enter a project for a chance at a really great prize? Thanks so much for dropping by today. Best wishes, Yvonne

Sweet as can be!

Hope your Tuesday is going well! I have a card to share with you that I made for the most recent challenge at PanPastel UK. This week, we are asked to make a project with "Sweet Treats" as the theme. I only have a few stamps that fit the bill, so I pulled out these clusters of cherries by Studio G and this cupcake and sentiment by Studio 112 and stamped everything onto white card stock with Black StazOn ink. The cherries and leaves and the cupcake were colored in with soft, creamy PanPastels. Not sure if you can see the quality the PP produce, but in person, it is just so light and airy and much different than using markers. The images were set off with black matting and a simple length of vintage leaf green seam binding fashioned into a bow. A perfect card for an upcoming summer birthday! Thanks for dropping by. My best to you. Yvonne

Breaking All the Rules

Greetings everyone. I hope those of you who celebrated Easter had a lovely time with your family. Our time together was lovely. Today I have a card to share with you that showcases one of the new images in the Quote and Quotables. It is a quote by Katharine Hepburn. My immediate thought when seeing this quote was to use it with the Flapper Fashions images. I began with a Mousse Souffle card base. A scroll work design was stamped in each corner with Black StazOn ink. A black doily was layered onto the card base followed by a TH Cabinet Card die cut that was stamped with a Flapper definition. Black liquid pearls were added around the edges. Two flappers were stamped on scrap card stock and trimmed and colored with Copic Markers and mounted to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped and then punched out into a circle and backed with another black circle. More black liquid pearls were added to the sentiment circle. Finishing embellishments include black and gold ribbon and a decorative brad. Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week. Yvonne

A Man Among Boys

A quick post tonight! This monochromatic card is for the new challenge at Make My Monday. The theme for April is Men and Boys and this week we are to create a Vintage project. Green dyed brown paper bag paper was distressed and torn and layered to a dark brown card base. The focal image from the Generation Redux plate by Artistic Outpost was stamped with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and matted with dark brown card stock and layered to the card front over torn pieces of a vintage book page. The vintage car, also be AO, is from the Great Gatsby plate and is stamped with Peeled Paint DI as well, trimmed and mounted with dimensionals. The sentiment and Gentleman's choice circle are from the SteamPunk plate by AO. Embellishments include a die cut tag by Studio 18, a TH Philosophy tag, burlap and three vintage buttons. Thanks so much for stopping by. Yvonne

Sweet Lullaby

It is a busy weekend indeed! My post this evening is for this week's Bloggers' Challenge. Our challenge this week is "To Die For" and we are create a project using a die or die cutting machine. I just acquired the Tim Holtz Cabinet Card die and was anxious to use it so I was delighted this was our challenge. I began with a dark blue card base and layered it with designer paper and white linen paper. Another piece of peach patterned card stock was die cut with the Cabinet Card die, wrapped with oyster colored lace and mounted to the card front. The little boy with his bugle was cut from designer paper by Graphics 45 and mounted with dimensionals over the Cabinet Card. The sentiment, also by Graphics 45, is stamped in Faded Jeans Distress Ink onto white card stock and mounted to the card front. Simple embellishments include baby blue liquid pearls, vintage seam binding, a rocking horse charm and a baby blue safety pin. I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Best, Yvonne

Ahoy Matey!

Ahoy there! We've a new challenge for the next two weeks over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge . This time around, our challenge is to create a project with a Nautical theme. I decided to create a tag for my inspiration piece using a stamp set by Artistic Outpost that is entitled Huck Finn. I don't know about you, but this little guy and his dog just take me back to my own childhood days! I fashioned the tag from brown card stock and distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The images and main sentiment were stamped Rich Cocoa Memento Ink onto white card stock and heavily distressed with Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I also water colored the little boy's overalls using Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The boat image was mounted to a matting of red paper with distressed Kraft Photo Corners. Additional words: Dream, Explore and Discover were also stamped with Festive Berry Distress Ink, trimmed, distressed and mounted to the tag front. Embellishments include some re-purposed twine and ribbon, burlap and vintage buttons. I hope you will drop over and see what my Design Team Sisters at FSC have created to inspire you to make your own creation. Please remember that we are a stamp challenge. No digis are permitted. You will want to check FSC for full details for submitting to the Nautical Challenge. As always, there is a prize up for grabs for the top winner. Best of luck to each of you! Yvonne

A Green Spring

Happy Thursday everyone! I am posting a card today for a challenge blog that is new to me, though I have admired it from a distance on occasion through others' posts. The blog is Our Creative Corner and the challenge of "How Green is Your Spring" is to create a paper craft inspired by the photo above.

I selected this clip art image by Crafty Individuals for the green tones in the mother's dress. The Victorian Pink card base was layered with a mostly green designer paper. Green lace was wrapped around the bottom followed by a light green ribbon by Martha Stewart. The clip art image was layered over a paper doily that was distressed lightly with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Scroll work corners, compliments of Crafty Individuals, and the sentiment by Art Declassified were also stamped with Peeled Paint DI. I added two German Scrap bunnies in grass and some vintage buttons that are filled with Opal Liquid Pearls by Ranger Products.

Well I must hop like a bunny as I still have so much to do to prepare for the weekend. Have a great day. Best, Yvonne

Put on Your Easter Bonnet

This is my second post today. Please scroll down if you would like to see the first. This post is for this week's PanPastel UK Challenge, which is "Easter Week." I immediately selected this image from Crafty Individuals as I thought she looked like she was in her Easter Bonnet. She was mounted onto gold metallic paper, and before adding black paper, I blended PanPastels in pinks and yellows onto white card stock and distressed the edges heavily with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. The top portion of the card was layered with a sparkly butterfly paper before adding the matted focal image. Vintage caramel seam binding was wrapped around the bottom of the designer paper and another piece was fashioned into a bow. A bird feather was tucked into the bow. On the bottom portion of the card, "Happy Easter" by Art Declassified and a new born chick by Paper Inspiration were stamped with Black StazOn ink. Embellishments include Vintage buttons, including a vintage fan button highlighted with Ranger Distress Stickles in Scattered Straw. Thanks for stopping by! Best wishes, Yvonne

It's a Guy Thing!

Hello! Today is Wednesday and it has been a gorgeous sunny, mild day around here. Good for the soul! I have a card to share with you today that I made for a challenge over at Make My Monday. During the month of April, we have an overall theme of "Men and Boys." Specifically this week , we are to create a guy project with "Wheels." Using a light gray card base, I stamped various images from the Industrial Backgrounds plate by Artistic Outpost in Black StazOn Ink onto the card front. I also stamped a number of images from the Diesel Punk plate, also by Artistic Outpost in Festive Red Distress Ink or Black StazOn ink. Several areas on the images were watercolored in Pumice Stone Distress Ink and the card base and the images were distressed with Pumice Stone Distress Ink as well. Simple embellishments include a memo holder and sprockets, and a ticket, all by Tim Holtz. Fibers are re-purposed from my stash. Thanks so much for stopping by. Best wishes, Yvonne

Botanicals in Red

Greetings! I hope you are having a great Tuesday! I have a card to share with you today using Artistic Outpost's recently released Flower Market stamp plate. I have always been drawn to botanicals and I was really psyched when this plate of images was released by Artistic Outpost. It will be one I reach for over and over. The individual images were stamped onto white card stock with Festive Berry Distress Ink, trimmed, distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and mounted onto black paper, which was mounted onto a red card base. Portions of each image were accented with Glossy Accents. The sentiment in the middle is raised with dimensionals. Simple accents include vintage buttons, a philosophy tag from Ideology and vintage seam binding and a bit of Baker's Twine. Here's hoping you have time to get inky today! Best Wishes, Yvonne

Think of Me!

There's a new challenge over at Stampsmith Challenge Blog! During the month of April, we are challenged to make a project with a theme of the Colors of Spring. I was fortunate to have won a complimentary sheet of stamps of my choice from the challenge recently and was anxious to use one of my new images for this project. I began with a Vintage Rose card base. I layered a designer paper from the Springtime pad from Crafty Individuals to the card base followed by a white paper doily. A tag from CI was layered next. My Stampsmith Image from the "Won't You be my Honey" stamp sheet was stamped with Black StazOn ink onto Glossy Paper and watercolored with Milled Lavender Distress Ink. The image was matted with leftover card stock that was colored with PanPastels in spring colors. The sentiment is from the "Say it with Flair" Stampsmith stamp sheet. Finishing touches include a vintage earring, pearls, vintage seam binding and a snippet of white ribbon embroidered with gold stars. Looking forward to seeing what others submit. If you have not checked out the challenge for April, wait until you see what the Design Team has come up with! Thanks as always for stopping by. Yvonne

Hope is a Thing with Feathers...

Greetings! I hope you are having a great Monday! I have a card to share with you today that features one of the quotes from the recently released Quote and Quotables plate by Artistic Outpost (AO). When I saw this quote, one of my very favorites, I immediately thought of pairing it with a number of images from the Birds of a Feather stamp plate. Starting with a sea salt colored card base, the edges were framed with cream colored lace. The script in the background was stamped with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink, as were all the other images, onto Kraft Card Stock. As I was placing the quote over the eggs that are toward the bottom of the script, I chose to stamp additional eggs on cream card stock to add elsewhere to my card. Several birds were also stamped and trimmed. The eggs and birds were watercolored with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and lightly distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The bird at the top of the card has hand-dyed cheese cloth behind it. The numbers are from the Whimsical Melange stamp plate, also by AO. Simple finishing touches include vintage blue buttons and a seam binding bow. Speaking of birds, there is a new challenge over at Artistic Outpost for April. The theme is "For the Birds. " Why not pull out your own AO stamps and submit an entry for a chance for the prize draw? There is a lot of inspiration showing many of the birds available through AO at the top of the Artistic Outpost April Referral Challenge page. I hope you will give it a go! Thanks for dropping by my blog today. I really value each visit and comment. Take care. Yvonne

Magic Man

Greetings everyone! Today is Sunday and I am hopefully traveling back home as you read this post. I wanted to share another piece I made using a number of images from the new March Release by Artistic Outpost. It also includes images from several older releases. I actually got my inspiration for my card while my husband and I were at one of his conferences in Washington, DC recently. I was taking a walk through a lovely neighborhood adjoining our hotel and came across a beautiful old home. It had a white stucco exterior and to soften it, the designer lined up squares of colored tiles in red, blue, green and yellow around various areas of the perimeter. I immediately knew when I returned to my hotel room that I would make this card inspired by those colored tiles! The alphabet is from the new Secretary Pool plate. It was stamped four times with Festive Berry, Crushed Olive, Faded Jeans and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. Letters were randomly cut out from the various colors and applied over one of the uncut alphabets. The edges were distressed with more distress ink. The young man from the Think and Wonder stamp plate was stamped in Faded Jeans Distress Ink, trimmed and mounted to an Ideology Ticket Stub with dimensionals. Before adding the young man to the card front, I hand-dyed some cheese cloth with Crushed Olive Distress Ink and layered it to the card front. Words from the Huck Finn stamp plate were stamped in matching ink colors, distressed and scattered over the front of the card. The quote from the new Quote and Quotables stamp plate was stamped in Faded Jeans, distressed and mounted to several layers of distressed matting. A light bulb, wrapped with Baker's Twine, some vintage buttons, more cheese cloth and a silver luggage charm complete my card. This would make a wonderful card of encouragement for a special man in your life. I'll be sharing more cards from the new March Release in the upcoming days. I hope you will stop back. Thanks for dropping by. Best wishes, Yvonne