A Stitch in Time

Greetings! It's time for a new challenge over at Inkspirational! This week we are working from the sketch below. 

I have been itching to ink up these new images from Artistic Stamper.  Some upcycled lace, wooden buttons and gingham ribbon complete my card.  Please be sure to stop over to Inkspirational to see what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you and then have a go at a creation of your own!  Our sponsor for September is Inspired by Stamping and one month long participant will win a gift card valued at $20!  Best wishes and thanks so much for stopping by.  Yvonne

Speed Limit: 65

Greetings!  Back with another post for Word Wednesday over at 365 Cards.  Our word this week is "Speedy."  I immediately thought of this plate by Artistic Outpost.  I love this young lady in her classy coat, scarf, hat and sun glasses and the sentiment is too rich.  The background is Dreamworks White Embossing Paste, dyed with Gathered Twigs and Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint and stenciled through a Tim Holtz Stencil.  Bakers Twine and Black Liquid Pearls complete my card.   I am also submitting my card to the September Referral Program at Artistic Outpost. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your own card.  Take care!  Yvonne

Quoth the Raven

Hello Dear Friends!  The weeks fly by so fast and already it is time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge. The theme for the next two weeks is to create a project around the theme of "Autumn Colors."  For my own creation, I began by applying three shades of PanPastels onto a piece of card stock.  I added stenciling with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and Tim Holtz Stencils. The pocket watch die cut, also by Tim Hotz Alterations, was colored with PanPastels and shaded along the edge Vintage Photo DI.  The focal image is by Red Lead.  The finished pocket watch was added to the card panel with foam dots along with a piece of cheese cloth that was dyed with Vintage Photo and Wild Honey DIs. The card panel was layered over a remnant of autumn printed gift wrap. A piece of upcycled lace, copper Liquid Pearls, some paper leaves and a vintage button complete my card.  I hope you will pop over to FSC to see what my Design Team Sisters have dreamed up to inspire you and then I hope you will create a project of your own to share with us.  Our generous sponsor FlonzCraft will provide a $20 gift card to one lucky participant.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Play Ball!

Greetings! A huge welcome to all my newest followers.  A a warm thank you to all my longterm, loyal followers, as well.  It is time again for the Pink Team over at Eclectic Ellapu to step up and our challenge this time around is to create a project  "For A Boy."  I immediately thought of a new to me set of stamps from Crafty Secrets to use for my own project.  Although I have heard of Crafty Secrets over the years, I did not pay attention until I saw a beautiful card recently using some of their images and went over to explore.  I was sad to learn that they are phasing out their stamp images and converting to digital images.  Although I am learning to use digital images, there is just something about physical stamps for me. So, I scooped up a few of my favorites. For my own card, I stenciled the Stars and Stripes stencils by Tim Holtz in Salty Ocean and Fired Brick on a piece of card stock. The focal images, bat, mitt and glove and All Star image were stamped on scrap card stock, water colored with Distress Markers and trimmed and adhered to the prepared panel, which was matted with black and red paper and attached to a white card base.  A bit of red and white baker's twine and some black Liquid Pearls complete my card.  I hope you will pop over to Eclectic Ellapu and take a look at the beautiful design team inspiration pieces and then be inspired to join in the challenge. Thanks so much for stopping by!   Best wishes, Yvonne

The Journey Awakens the Soul

Greetings! It is time for a new challenge over at Inkspirational!  This week we have a CASE challenge based on the gorgeous sample below: 

For my own card, I chose to use a similar design and color scheme. Since I gave most of my background papers away, I chose four different shades of gray paper and stenciled each using a combination of Crafty Workshop and Tim Holtz Stencils and Black Soot Distress Ink.  The die cut is actually an Alterations Pocket Watch die cut with the top cut off.  The focal image, inked for the first time, is by BLine Designs and was water colored with Distress Markers and attached to the card front with foam dots.  The paper string and metal journal tag are by Idea-ology.  I hope you will pop over to Inkspirational to browse through the gorgeous samples of the rest of the Design Team and then create one of your own.  Our sponsor for the month of September is Inspired By Stamping.  One lucky month long participant will win a gift card.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Wild Cat

Hello! It's Wednesday and that means there is another Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards!  Our word this week is "Wild."  Now I had a bunch of different ideas for which direction to go in, but in the end, this gorgeous cat included on this collage stamp by Artistic Outpost won out.  The collage image was stamped with Timber Brown StazOn Ink on white card stock.  The focal image was water colored with Distress Markers. The entire panel was distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the edges were distressed with Distress Tool.  The image was matted on several shades of brown matting and layered over corrugated card board onto the card front.  Rub ons by 7 Gypsies and tissue tape by Idea-ology fill in the white backaground.  Paper string is also by Idea-ology, as is the clip at the top of the card, which is attached to a piece of frayed burlap and a vintage button.  What will you create for the challenge?  Thanks for stopping by!  Hugs, Yvonne

Winner!!!

Thank you! My deepest appreciation to each of you who took the time to help me celebrate my 60th Birthday.  As promised, a winner of the blog candy was selected by the Random Number Generator.  (Unfortunately, I was not able to cut and paste the screen to post here, but the True Random Number Generator was indeed used.)

Congratulations to the winner:  Miss Iowa!  Please send your mailing address and contact information to me at jagymg@comcast. net so that I can mail off a package of goodies to you.  

Best wishes, Yvonne

Birthday Blog Candy!

To all my faithful followers and visitors, for some time now I have been planning to do a Blog Candy in celebration of my upcoming 60th birthday, which occurs on Monday, September 9.  (I had hoped to post this some time ago, but my dear husband and faithful dog have been very ill much of the summer, so better late than never, I guess!)

Knowing each of you, visiting your blogs, learning and being inspired by you have brightened my days.  Turning 60 seems impossible, but here we are!

For some time I have been gathering together some gorgeous papers, ink, stains, rubber stamps to share with one lucky winner who comments on this post and whose name I will draw on Monday, September 16 and announce on Tuesday, September 17.  

I am not requiring any one who leaves a comment to become a follower, but if you chose to do so, that would be lovely! If you care to share this post with others, please do! Regardless, please join in and help me celebrate my birthday!

Best wishes, Yvonne

Happiness is Like a Butterfly...

Greetings! Another Wednesday Post for the newest challenge over at Inkspirational where this week we are creating projects based on the Photo Inkspiration below:

As I looked at this beautiful photo, I decided that I would create a card around nature, and include butterflies.  I found a piece of beautiful paper from Crafty Individuals with flowers and birds.  It is difficult to see, but I added Mustard Seed Distress Glitter to the center of many of the flowers.  The paper was matted several times and added to the card base.  The beautiful sentiment by DRS Designs quotes Thoreau and is filled with wisdom.  A compimentary image by Crafty Individuals was inked with a Stormy Sky Distress Marker (first time using this marker and I was very surprised at the color as the cap looked more bluish), stamped three times and trimmed and mounted to the card front.  Vintage seam binding tied into a bow and some Copper Liquid Pearls completes my card.  Our sponsor this month is Inspired by Stamping and one lucky winner who participates in all of the September Challenges at Inkspirational will win a $20 gift card.  Please check out Inkspirational for more inkspiration from the Design Team! Thanks for stopping by.  Hugs, Yvonne 

Oh So Pretty!

Greetings!  It's Wednesday and time for another Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards.  This time, our challenge is to use the word "Pretty" to create our card.  As I looked around my art studio, and went through some clip art images, this ethereal image by Gecko Galz of a beautiful woman holding and studying a bird caught my eye. The ephemera on either side of her, is also by GG.  Since I worked with an 8" x 8" card base in order to frame the paper doily, I wanted to fill in the background somewhat.  I decided to use a Dylusions Stencil and Dreamworks Embossing Paste (yes, the jar is probably a decade old).  I poured a small amount of Spun Sugar Distress Paint onto my craft mat and smooshed the embossing paste into it with palette knife to colorize it.  After it dried, I applied some Gesso to the embossed diamonds to tone down the pink a bit.  A length of pink lace along the bottom, some complimentary pink dyed seam binding, a metal embellishment, buttons softened with Gesso, (all compliments of one generous Linda Coughlin at The Funkie Junkie Boutique) a feather, some cheese cloth and some liquid pearls complete my card.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your "Pretty" card.  My thanks to so many of you who wished me a Happy Birthday.  There is still time to sign up for my Birthday Blog Candy - see the sticky post at the top of my blog! Cheers, Yvonne

Seaside, Fresh Air

Greetings! It is once again time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge!  This time, our theme is "Can You Resist?"  Now I must admit, I had several false starts with this one.  I do not do a lot of techniques well that involve resist.  After viewing several You Tube Videos and having less success than I wanted, I totally started over when my eyes came across a Ranger Resist Ink pad.  Several collage stamp images by Red Lead Stamps were inked with the Resist Ink and stamped onto Specialty Paper. Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Vintage Photo Distress Ink were sponged over the paper until the beautiful collaged starfish, and shells appeared.  Sentiments from Paper Artsy were stamped in Timber Brown StazOn Ink.  A light house from PA was stamped onto Specialty Paper, trimmed and mounted to the card panel.  Cheese cloth was added to the left lower corner and shells, a starfish and baby sand dollar were adhered.  The prepared panel was matted with brown card stock, wrapped with burlap string and added to a card base.  You will surely be inspired by all the beautiful inspiration pieces of the Design Team.  As always, our generous sponsor is FlonzCraft and one lucky winner will win a $20 gift voucher.  I hope you will join us. Best wishes, Yvonne

Party On!

Greetings! It is hard to believe it is time again for the Pink Team over at Eclectic Ellapu!  Our theme this time around is to create a project based on our pets. It can be a current pet, or a past pet.  I decided to create this card in remembrance of my most recent cat, Pepper, who was a member of our family for 16 years.  Pepper was a gray tabby cat, very shy, wanted to be in the room with us, but at a safe distance.  She was very sweet and left a lasting impression on all of us.  I chose to use three cat images from Lost Coast Designs called "Party Cats" and inked them with Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Mustard Seed Distress Ink.  The cat images were trimmed and mounted over a card base that was stenciled with a variety of stencils by Andy Skinner, Tim Holtz and Crafters Workshop.  The ink splats are a stamp image by Crafty Individuals and the word "Meow" was stamped with an alphabet set by Studio G.  Paper String by Ideo-ology completes my card.  I sure hope you will drop over to Eclectic Ellapu to see what the Design  Team have created for you and then share a project of your own with us.  

By the way Eclectic Ellapu is about to celebrate its first year in October.  They have come up with a month long Treasure Hunt that is filled with fabulous prizes.  Stay tuned for more information.  I hope you will join in the fun!  Best wishes, Yvonne 

Happy Birthday!

It's Wednesday! It's time for a new challenge over at Inkspirational! This time, we are challenged to create a project using the color scheme below:

Now, with color challenges, your are pretty much wide open for what you create.  I decided it was time to ink up a new to me Tim Holtz Blueprint Stamp.  The image was watercolored with Distress Markers and then glittered up with some Mustard Seed Distress Glitter.  The background needed something, so I added Black Embossing Paste using a stencil, both by Wendy Vecchi.  Our sponsor this month is "Inspired by Stamping."  One lucky participant who completes all the September challenges will win a $20 gift card! Please check out the rest of the Design Team's Inkspiration pieces and then join in!  Best wishes, Yvonne

Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

Greetings! It is Wednesday and time for a new Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards.  Our word this week is "Sugar."  Now, since I do not personally make cute cards, I was at first stumped. Eventually, I remembered an Artistic Outpost image of a teacup with sugar cubes and was ready to begin!  I stenciled Vintage Photo Distress Ink with one of the new Tim Holtz stencils onto a card front. (I love these new stencils, but since they are tag sized, I am still learning how with some of them to reposition them on larger spaces.)  The images and sentiments are all from Artistic Outpost.  A length of lace, buttons, seam binding and a metal charm complete my card.  What comes to mind for you when you hear the word "sugar?" We hope you will join us at 365 Cards!  Take care, Yvonne