Remembering the Yellow Jackets of My Youth!

Greetings!  Thanks for dropping by today.  Just a quick post for the current Alpha/Dictionary Challenge at The Craft Barn where the letter this time is "Y" with a twist.  We need to include yellow on our project.  Unfortunately, I missed the previous challenge of "B" while traveling about, but hopefully I can catch up with that one too.  Since my name begins with a "Y" and I once had "Y" as a nickname where I worked, I looked forward to working on this challenge.  While browsing through the dictionary, I came across the word "yellow jacket."  Seemed fitting!  As a child, yellow jackets seemed to be drawn to me.  My dad would tell me to sit perfectly still and not show my fear and they would not harm me.  Didn't always work!  But, today, I am for some reason drawn to "bee" images.  I love them.  And so, I chose to use these bees and bee hive by Character Construction.  They are the closet thing in my collection to yellow jackets.  Behind the letter "Y" I matted the letter with a piece of white card stock that I stained with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Stain. I just received a number of bottles of DS from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and must say that for small projects, I will never need to worry about having the right color of card stock on hand again. Amazing product!  The hive and bees were water colored with Distress Markers and, also new to me, I added a touch of Gelatos! I must be very far behind, as I only learned of Gelatos this week.  I have been studying online tutorials and cannot wait to really give them a "go!"  Well, must run.  Have a big weekend planned with family and lots to do before then!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Hugs, Yvonne

Sweet Easter Bunny

Well it is just hard to believe it is time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge!  This time, the challenge is "Paper Piecing."  I really love to see paper piecing, although it is not something I often venture into.  When I see others do it, I always think, "why didn't I think of that!"  For my card, I wrapped the card front with layers of frothy white lace.  Next, I die cut a cabinet card using pink gingham check fabric.  This fabric is very special to me.  It was given to me by my ex mother-in-law may decades ago.  She is gone now, but it gives me pleasure to use the fabric in her honor.  The bunny and carrot and bow, all by Character Construction, were paper pieced.  Simple embellishments include paper flowers, liquid pearls, a seam binding bow and Idea-ology ChitChat Stickers.  I sure hope you will stop over to FSC and see all the great projects the rest of the design team have come up with and I sure hope you will submit a project of your own for a chance at a great prize.  Best wishes and thanks so much for stopping by.  Yvonne

Bee Mine!

Greetings!  My card today is for several challenges.  The first is for Challenge #183 over at 365 Cards where we are asked to create a card based on the colors above.  The card is also for a new challenge I learned about called Tuesday Alchemy where the challenge is to create a project inspired by the words "Bee," "Guitar," and "Lunch."   The images are from Art Declassified, except for the bees and sentiment, which are from Character Construction.  Distress Inks and Black StazOn Ink were used.  Simple embellishments include Copper Liquid Pearls and vintage seam binding.  Thanks so much for dropping by.  Best, Yvonne

Love is Simply Magical

Hello everyone!  I hope your weekend is going well.  Once again, the days have clicked by and it is time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.  For the next two weeks, the theme is Magical or Mystical.  Unlike my Design Team sisters, I was pretty well stumped as to what to create until my Dear Husband suggested I create a card based on the Beatles' song: Magical Mystery Tour.  Unfortunately, only a portion of the stamps I ordered arrived in time, probably due to the Memorial Day.  So....I decided to go with this dear little fairy stamp by Lost Coast Designs.  I began by layering a background paper to my card base and then layered a strip of paper lace from the Funkie Junkie Boutique and some Idea-olgy gauze flowers, tinted with Peacock Distress Ink.  The fairy was stamped with Black StazOn Ink on white card stock and watercolored with Distress Inks.  The bow above the fairy is from Character Constructions.  The ChitChat stickers are by Idea-ology and the corrugated heart was a thank you gift for placing an order at the Funkie Junkie Boutique. Finishing touches include turquoise thread, cheese cloth, pearls and Ranger Stickles.

I hope you will drop over to see the absolutely gorgeous inspiration pieces created by the Design Team.  I hope, too, you will consider joining the challenge by submitting a project of your own.  You will want to check FSC for all the details and remember, ours is a stamping challenge, so no digis are permitted.    Thanks for dropping by today.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Fashionable Stamping Challenges- It's A Guy Thing

Greetings! It's time for a brand new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge! This time around, we have a theme of "It's A Guy Thing." When I first began making cards, I struggled with making cards for guys. As time goes by, and as I have collected more masculine images, I am much more comfortable with designing masculine cards. For this post, I was excited to finally ink up this "Men with a Checkered Past" image by Queen's Dresser Drawers. I layered a vintage book page to a hounds tooth background paper, wrapped a length of brown twill tape around the papers and mounted them to a Kraft card base. My focal image was stamped on glossy paper and mounted to the card front with Kraft photo corners. To repeat the bee image on my main image, I stamped a bee from Character Constructions multiple times and watercolored the bees with Distress Inks onto a TH ticket stub. I also stamped a hat by Inkadinkado to replicate the hats in the main image. Finishing touches include a variety of vintage buttons, bits of twine and copper Liquid Pearls. I hope you will pop over to FSC to see what my talented Design Team sisters have created and then consider joining in on the fun. Just remember, FSC is a stamping challenge. Check out the details at FSC. Thanks for stopping by! Best, Yvonne

Make My Monday - Challenge 10 - Birds or Bugs

I really look forward to each new challenge at Make My Monday. For August, the overall theme is "Wings and Things." For this week, it is specifically for either Birds or Bugs. I must tell you that I absolutely LOVE birds and really thought hands down I would have a card with birds on it. I surprised myself by grabbing this gorgeous plate of images by Character Construction instead. A little Distress Ink, Copic Markers and some glitter via Spica Markers. Not sure you can see the glistening wings on the bees, but trust me, it's there. Looking forward to seeing every one's entries. Have a great week. Yvonne

Royally Crafted - Day 67

Today's challenge at 365 Cards is to create a wedding card befitting the recent Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge . It is probably hard to see, but the card base is a deckle edge card. I selected this bride and groom stamp, by Paper Inspirations, that I used to make my youngest daughter's Save the Date announcements when she got married in 2007.

I chose not to watch this Royal wedding, though I was home and could have, but did of course see follow-up footage. I would say the one word that best described the wedding was "understated," though elegant also comes to mind.

With that in mind, I wanted to keep my card pretty simple. I chose to mat the bridal couple in metallic sapphire to pay homage to Princess Diana's engagement ring. The sentiment from Stampington and Company could not be more fitting for this wedding. I added the bow, by Character Constructions, at the top to frame the card. Although I used the same black ink, it did not show up real well on the gold metallic paper. I decided to add some soft dots to the bow with a black glitter pen. I searched my ribbons and flowers but in the end decided it would be too fussy. Instead, I chose a gold Fleur de Lis brad. Though often associated with the French, it is used throughout Europe on countless coats of arms and flags over the centuries, and I thought it was a nice finishing touch.

I value your comments on my design. Thanks, as always for stopping by. Happy Mothers' Day to everyone. Yvonne