It's the Little Things

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for dropping by today.  I truly appreciate every single visit and every comment.  Today, it is time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge with a new theme of "Sew Sew." I must confess, I am at the beach and do NOT have my duffle bag with me.  I thought I would be heading home sooner and because we had company did not plan to craft while away.  A trip to our local craft store allowed me to scoop up the bare essentials to create my card.  The focal image is by Inkidinkado and I truly do love it.  The dress was water colored with a Broken China Distress Marker and the edges were torn and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The measuring tape by 7 Gypsies was stamped with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. Bits of ribbon, decorative fabric trim and lace and some Baker's Twine complete my card.  You will most certainly want to stop over to see what the rest of the Design Team has dreamed up to inspire you and join us in welcoming Laura to our Design Team family.  We look forward to seeing your creations, too, and remember one lucky participant will win a $20 gift voucher from our ever generous sponsor, FlonzCraft! Best wishes, Yvonne

Yuletide Greetings!

Greetings!  Working on my Christmas Card Inventory with the latest Challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throw Down. The challenge this week is a recipe:  Patterned Paper, Glitter, and we most decorate the inside of our card.  In retrospect, I see a Valentine's Day influence on my card! But truly, the patterned paper by Martha Stewart is a leftover piece of Christmas card stock.  The postage stamp image by Inkadinkado was stamped with Red StazOn Ink.   I found myself breaking up the pattern a bit with the paper doily and lace trim.  Vintage seam binding and buttons, and a few ChitChat stickers complete my card.  For glitter, I used Red Ranger Stickles.  A close up below, hopefully gives you a better feel for the glitter.

I used more of the same paper inside and decided to add more Stickles as well!

I am still plugging away to create a total of seven of each week's design to meet my card goal for Christmas.  Wish me luck!  Best, Yvonne

Seasons Greetings

My card today is for the eighth challenge of the Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style that is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Linda's beautiful tag is shown below.  I was inspired to try to recreate the coloration of her background as well as the stars by Inkadinkado.  I incorporated Santa, an image by Stampsmith, a red border, flowers from Tim Holtz Tatterered Florals purchased at the Funkie Junkie Boutique and added some bells to reflect Linda's tag too.  I also chose to use the same sentiment in a different font.  Have you thought about joining in the challenge?  There's still time!

Thanks for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Joy and a Boy

Hello!  Today, I am sharing with you my take on Linda Coughlin's 4th Tag of 12 Tags of Christmas.  I just love Linda's Tag!  I especially love the gingham background.  For my own card, I wanted to try to use as many of the elements as I could that Linda chose, which includes: Gingham check, pine cone, holly, post card text, a bow, a calendar, an embossed red panel, and a black and white image.  I layered small scraps of gingham check paper (it's all that I had on hand) to the card base.  The Post Card sentiment, from the Ephemera Backgrounds plate by Artistic Outpost, was stamped onto the card base.  The various images were stamped on Specialty paper, distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and added to the card front.  A Tim Holtz Texture Folder of pine trees was used to emboss pine trees.  The little boy and the pine cone are by Stampsmth, the holly branch is by Inkadinkado.  White glitter glue was added to the pine cone and the edge of the pine trees.  A tartan plaid bow from my stash and some Chrome Liquid Pearls complete my card.  Linda's boutique called The Funkie Junkie Boutique is sponsoring the Twelve Tags of Christmas Challenge.  It is filled with great items at great prices.  Why not take a peek?!  Thanks for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Bonjour!

What a great month of challenges over at Make My Monday!  This week, the theme is to include Fleur de Lys in our project.  I decided to ink up this "Arc de Triomph" stamp, by Stampsmith, for the first time.  After distressing with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, it was layered over a black doily.  A portion of a map of Paris, also by Stampsmith was stamped, distressed, and tucked under the main image.  The sentiments were stamped, distressed, matted and layered to the card front.  Torn portions of a French text were distressed and added next.  A "Fleur de Lys" stamp, by Inkadinkado, was stamped several times, trimmed, water colored with Rusty Hinge DI and mounted to the card front with pop dots.  Copper Liquid Pearls and a red, white and blue ribbon complete my card.  Thanks so much for all your faithful visits to my blog.  I truly appreciate each one of you.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Joy to the World

Greetings!  It was a very busy weekend, so I apologize for not posting for a few days.  We had a family celebration of September birthdays on Saturday and a family reunion on my father's side on Sunday.  My card above is for the current challenge at Bloggers Challenge, which this week is to create a project with a Silhouette on it.  I immediately thought of this adorable stamp from Inkadinkado.  I used Forest Moss and Barn Red Distress Markers to color the stamp and matted it with black paper.  Simple embellishments include braided cord, black liquid pearls and a tartan plaid button tied with a bit of black Scrapper's Floss.  Thanks so much for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne 

Sweet Innocence

This is my second post of the day. Please scroll down if you would like to see my first! I came across a new challenge today for me while working on another challenge. This one is for Card and Scrap and the theme is "Buttons." I began with my focal image, CI-277, by Crafty Individuals, stamped with StazOn, trimmed and colored with Copic Markers. The image was mounted with foam dots onto a doily that was distressed with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. I added pieces of background paper to the card base and stamped nursery images by Inkadinkado onto them. On the fourth section, I added a sentiment from Crafty Individuals. Embellishments include gingham ribbon, a pink safety pin, pink and white Baker's Twine, and vintage buttons. It's hard to see, but I also added some Frosted Lace Stickles to the various nursery images. Hope your day is going well. Yvonne

Stampsmith Challenge #27 - Love and Lace

Greetings! Before I talk about my card above, I want to share with you that I was so excited to learn this morning that I was recognized over at The Stampsmith Challenge Blog for the tag I submitted in January for the Tag Art Challenge! Since it is February 1, it is time for a new challenge at Stampsmith. For February, we focus on Love and Lace and must use at least one Stampsmith stamp. I began with a taupe colored card base. I chose a number of stamps from the Stampsmith Paris Art sheet and the Eiffel Detail stamp for my focal images and sentiment. The Fleur-de-Lis stamp by Inkadinkado is mounted on pop dots for dimension. Vintage lace from a Lucky bag from Dezinaworld, some Winter White seam binding, vintage buttons, a bit of cheese cloth and a pin and some French inspired charms complete my card.

A moment of reminiscing: When I was in fourth grade, a woman came into our class room one day, gave each of us a French name, mine was Francois, and informally taught us French three days a week, through sixth grade. In seventh grade, French was offered five days a week with a promise that if you took French through the twelfth grade, you would be eligible for a trip to New York City for a weekend and would dine in a French Restaurant! I still remember what I ordered in that restaurant, and even though my family could not afford to send me on the French trip as a senior, I was happy with my NY trip. Fast forward twenty years later, and my oldest daughter had the opportunity to take that special trip to France. I went along as a chaperon, and unbelievably, roomed with MY French Teacher who was now also my daughter's! This plate of stamps means so much to me as it brings back memories of our time in Paris. Au Revoir! Yvonne

MMM Challenge # 34 - Butterflies and Dragonflies

Hello, this is my second post for today. Please scroll down to see my first post. This is the last week at Make My Monday for the Nature theme, and specifically, we are to use Butterflies and/or Dragonflies for Challenge #34.

I began with a white card stock panel and sponged on three different shades of PanPastels in orange tones. I next stamped on blocks of small fluttering butterflies by Inkadinkado in Wild Honey Distress ink with the thought of them being in the background, rather than front and center. Next, I stamped stems of flowers by Hero repeatedly with Black Versafine ink. I then stamped a butterfly and dragonfly, also with Black Versafine ink, trimmed them ,colored them in with Atyou Spica Glitter pens and distressed the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink. I added them to my card with pop dots. A sweet sentiment by Stampin Up was stamped on white card stock, distressed with Antique Linen Distress ink and matted with black paper and mounted between the raised butterfly and dragonfly.

On the left side of my card, I added a clip art image from Crafty Individuals, which I matted in black paper. This sweet image of a deer and a child seem to be looking out over the field of flowers and butterflies. Embellishments include vintage buttons, cheese cloth, black liquid pearls and orange and black baker's twine. I am so enjoying these PanPastels! I just love the velvety texture and softness it lends to my cards. Have a wonderful night. Best, 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 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 - Things with Wings

This week has flown by! It is already time for another Bloggers' Challenge. The theme this week is "Things with Wings." My first thought was to look through my bird stamps, and then I remembered a book of images I received this week from Crafty Individuals. I found this image of three sweet angels, and they fit the bill for having wings! This is a bit of a departure for me, as I normally stamp images on my card, but it is good to try different approaches, I think! I did stamp the sentiments: Hope and Inspire by Stampa Rosa and Happiness by Inkadinkado. Embellishments include ribbon and pearls by Martha Stewart, a doily and some feathers, which seemed fitting. I hope you are having a good weekend. I am still dismantling Christmas and carrying everything to the third floor after learning my lesson in the flood back in September 2011 when I thought it was easier to store Christmas decorations in the basement! Would love to hear from you. Best, Yvonne

Use it Tuesday - Thank You

There's a new challenge at Use it Tuesday! This time, we are to make a card 'Giving Thanks.' I have a lot of thank you cards to make right now, so this was perfect timing for me. I began with a white card base and wrapped it with several very old ribbons, one recycled from a gift box. I stamped my Inkadinkado image in Wild Honey and matted it with black and burgundy paper scraps. The sentiment is by Stampin Up and is a 2004 release that has not seen ink in almost as long. To finish my card, I added some rust colored leaves, some 10-year old raffia and copper liquid pearls. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was not what I had planned, but it turned out very nice. Thanks for dropping by and thanks for your comments. Best, Yvonne

Autumn Inchies - Flora and Fauna

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Our weather was gorgeous all weekend and continues into the new week. Challenge # 20 at Make My Monday is Autumn Inchies - Flora and Fauna. I recently picked up this stamp by Inkadinkado and think it is perfect for this week's challenge. I painstakingly cut background papers into inchies and arrange them colorfully and then realized I needed to put them all back together to stamp my image! I am also submitting my card to Stamptacular Sunday Challenge for Challenge #134 - 'You Choose,' which calls for any card using a technique new to you. Although I have made a few cards with inchies, I have never attempted to stamp one image across multiple inchies. I have always stamped each block individually, so that is my 'new to me' technique. Looking forward to seeing what evryone else comes up with! Thanks for dropping by. Best, Yvonne

Tuesday Trigger - Finesse the Dress

It's another Tuesday Trigger at Moxy Fab! This week, we are to make a card as inspired by the dress above. I immediately thought of this previously uninked stamp by Inkadinkado and stamped it in London Fog Memento Ink onto a Turquoise scrap and matted the image in white and metallic gray. A simple gray strip punched with a Martha Stewart border punch replicates the hem of the dress. The scalloped doily behind the image also replicates, somewhat, the bodice of the dress. The sentiment is by Stampa Rosa and embellishments include gauze flowers by Tim Holtz and Baker's Twine by Divine Twine. Looking forward to seeing everyone else's takes on the photo! Thanks for dropping by. Best, Yvonne

365 Cards - Day 167 - Super Sketchy Sunday

Kind of working backwards on the challenges at 365 Cards this week! My card today is for Day 167 and is a Super Sketchy Sunday challenge. If you read any of my other posts this week, you know that I am away from home with a small stash of card supplies. I honestly think all of my cards this week are not what I might have produced if I had been at home in my art studio, but I also think it is good once in awhile to limit what you have to work with and I often find that I really like the cards I make at those times. This sketch lent itself to the pack of designer paper I had along, which I used for the strip as well as the main image. The sentiment is by Inkadinkado and the embellishments include green and white Baker's Twine and black liquid pearls. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up with for this challenge!

Moxy Fab - Tuesday's Trigger - Cherished Squares

I recently stumbled onto the Moxy Fab blog and their Tuesday Trigger Challenge. The challenge this week is called 'Cherished Squares' and the inspiration photo is just above. I followed the Moxy Fab column in the PaperCrafts magazine for many years but had never checked out the blog. It is a great column that keeps you abreast of changes and new trends in the world of card making. I'm sure I'll be checking the blog often now that I found it!

For my card, I decided to begin with a Kraft card base. I decided to do inchies, though mine are 1.5 inches a piece. I chose colors in the inspiration piece, and some of my stamps, all by Inkadinkado, are circular like the centers of the afghan square. I think the lacy black border on the side replicates the crocheting too. My art style, like the rest of how I interpret life, is pretty literal, though I've been trying harder to break out of my box a bit more. Looking forward to meeting some new friends through this challenge. Have a great day everyone. Yvonne

365 Cards - Day 151 - Friday Background Challenge

The challenge over at 365 Cards for Day 151 is to use at least three layers in your background. I chose to add a large piece of background paper over most of the card front. I also added another strip of background paper, punched with a border punch by Martha Stewart, and finally, I added matting to my focal image which was stamped and distressed with Distress Ink onto glossy paper. The images from the Lovely Day plate are by Artistic Outpost and the sentiment is by Inkadinkado. Some crafter's thread and pearls complete the card. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Yvonne

365 Cards - Day 146 - Super Sketchy Sunday

The challenge for Day 146 at 365 Cards is another Super Sketchy Sunday. The sketch above from Pam is our inspiratin. I chose to tear the edges of some background paper to reflect the wiggly lines. I decided to remove the cord on the shipping tag and replace it with ribbon. I recycled the cord by threading it through the buttons on the card. My image by Inkadinkado is one of my all-time favorites. I used some copper liquid pearls to finish the card. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! Yvonne

Make My Monday - Challenge 7 - Vintage Shabby Chic, Torn or Crumpled

I've been waiting all week for another Monday to roll around to see what the next challenge was over at Make My Monday. I was not disappointed. Challenge 7 is Vintage Shabby Chic, Torn or Crumpled. For my main image, I chose this vintage stamp by Inkadinkado and inked it in Pumice Distress Ink for a softer feel and then shaded the stamped image with Spun Pink Distress Ink. I matted the image with a torn background paper also distressed the edges of the matting with Spun Pink Distress Ink. The flowers by Artistic Outpost at the bottom are also stamped in Pumice. I added lace, trim, a piece of a page of a very old book, which I crumpled up and smoothed out. The piece of the page was a little too big so I tore off a couple of pieces. I stamped both of the pieces I tore off with the words "Inspire" and "Hope" in Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Other embellishments included pink German Scrap, vintage buttons and pearls. Can't wait to see wait to see what everyone else comes up with! Thanks for stopping by and thanks for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it. Yvonne