In the bleak mid-winter

 

Greetings! I've had a late start getting back into the challenges, for 2018, as a Design Team member at Inkspirational due to family circumstances. It's good to back! 

 

 

For our latest challenge, our theme is to make an "Aperture Card." For my own card, I chose to work with a number of die cuts by Tim Holtz for Sizzex. To make the die cuts pop, I added a water color effect behind them. The sentiment is by Alsion Bomber for Paper Artsy. I hope that you will stop over to Inkspirational to see what the design team has created to inspire you and then consider creating a project of your own to share with us.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hugs, Yvonne

Be Strong, Be Brave

 

 

Greetings and thank you for stopping by.  Today, I am sharing with you a card that I made for the new challenge over at Inkspirational where this time our theme is "Recipe."  We are to use at least 3 of the 4:  Embossing, Distressing, Flowers and Pearls. In the end, I ended up using all four on my project!  I hope you will pop on over to see what the rest of the Design Team has dreamed up for you and then submit a project of your own. 

 

For my  own piece, I began with a piece of hot press water color paper, which I distressed with a Tim Holtz distressing tool. I painted it with a beautiful shade of turquoise water colors, then spritzed and dripped more of the same onto the panel.  The flowers by Donna Downey for Unity were stamped on more water color paper and water colored and highlighted with a black and white ink pen.  The stems were free handed and water colored, as well.  The stamens in the flowers are Black Viva Décor Liquid Pearls.  To complete my card, I embossed with Black Embossing Paste, by Wendy Vecchi, through a stencil by Red Lead Paperworks.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you dream up! Best, Yvonne



Flowers Everywhere!

Greetings!  This is my very first card created in my new home, from my new art studio.  I finally found my paper cutter in the middle of the night last night in another room of the house!  It really felt good to get inky again, though a bit uncomfortable as I try to relearn where all my supplies are in my new space.  This card is for the challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu where the challenge theme for the Pink Team is "Flowers."  The flowers can be a focal point, an embellishment, the background, or whatever you like.  I chose to use them as my background.  The large flower is by Paper Artsy and was stamped with Black Archival Ink.  The smaller gold flowers were embossed with Gold Embossing Paste and a stencil, both by Wendy Vecchi.  The focal image by Tim Holtz was stamped several times, trimmed and pieced together using Archival Ink.  The edges were distressed lightly with Distress Ink.  A simple black and white piece of twine was fashioned into a bow at the top of the card. Thanks so much for stopping by and for all your kind comments.  I hope you will stop over to EE to see all the beautiful inspiration pieces by the Pink Team and then share a piece of your own with us.  Best, Yvonne

Love Is In the Air

Greetings! It is time, once again, for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.  This time, our challenge is called "Tag Along with Us," and we are asked to make a tag. I began with a Jumbo Manila Tag from the Funkie Junkie Boutique. I layered ivory corrugated paper over top,trimmed to fit and tore bits of the corrugated paper off to distress a bit.  The edges were distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The focal image by Lost Coast Designs was inked for the first time, and is one I have admired for quite some time.  It was matted with some burlap fabric with frayed edges.  The background of the tag was inked with images from Artistic Outpost's Generation Redux.

Embellishments include several tickets and paper string from Tim Holtz, a bottle cap with an image by Crafty Individuals.  The twill tape at the top of the tag and the heart gems are from my stash. I hope you will pop on over to FSC to see the gorgeous tags my Design Team Sisters have created, and then create and share one or more of your own with us!  As always, one lucky participant will win a gift voucher for $20 from our generous sponsor, FlonzCraft. Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hugs, Yvonne

Celebrate

Merry Christmas!  It's Wednesday, and time for another Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards.  Our word this time is "Celebration."  I chose to work with the "Auld Lang Syne" plate of images from Artistic Outpost.  To add a bit of sparkle, the matting is gold metallic, the sparkly stars are by Tim Holtz, the dancer was dressed in Ranger Stickles and a final touch of gold embroidered stars on the ribbon.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your project!  I am also submitting my card to the December Referral Program at Artistic Outpost.  Hugs, Yvonne

Vintage Merry Christmas

Greetings! It's time for another challenge over at Inkspirational and this week it's Anything Goes!  I hope you will pop on over to Inkspirational to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you.  We hope, too, that you will submit a project of your own for us to enjoy.  For my own project, I began with a gorgeous vintage image from NiceCrane Designs, matted it with gold metallic paper and layered it over a white doily that was layered onto a blue metallic panel that was decorated with white rub-ons from Tim Holtz.  A bit of stamping with images from Artistic Outpost were inked with black StazOn Ink and a bit of glitter glue.  All were mounted onto a white card base.  Thanks for stopping by!  Hugs, Yvonne

Happy New Year!

Greetings!  It's time for another Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards.  Our word this week is "New."  I immediately knew that I wanted to make a card for the New Year.  Looking through my gorgeous "Gecko Galz" images, I found this beautiful and fun-filled image of two children and a snow man celebrating the new year.  I enlarged the image to better fit my 8x8 inch card, backed it with snowflake background paper and layered it with a doily to the card front.  The snowflakes are Tim Holtz Rub Ons.  The sentiment is from Artistic Outpost and was stamped with Midnight Blue StazOn Ink.  A simple vintage seam binding bow completes my card.  I look forward to seeing what you might come up with for your project.  Thanks so much for dropping by today!  Hugs, Yvonne

From This Day Forward

Greetings!  It is a beautiful, finally, spring day here in my part of the world and I hope it is for you too, wherever you might be!  My post today is for the current challenge over at Frilly and Funkie where the theme is "A Time for Weddings"  and we are asked to make a card with white and one other color.  Assuming black is a neutral, the only other color besides antique white on my card is the pink flowers in the frame.  Hopefully, this works for the criteria!  

A little bit about the background of creating my card.  My dear husband recently decided to retire!  He had been battling a major health concern these past ten years and it is just time for he and me to move on to the next phase of our lives.  We plan to downsize and are in the process of getting our home ready to sell.  I am pretty much breaking down my art studio, and only keeping out my essentials.  The rest of the items are being boxed up for wherever my new art studio will be or are being given away to friends who are just getting started in this wonderful world of art.  As I was boxing things up, I came across this gorgeous sticker by Penny Black.  I also found this near perfect length of pearls and lace.  Before I knew it, my card just came together.  The edges were distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and Idea-ology ChitChat Stickers were added to the card front along with a length of lace, some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape, a paper heart by Martha Stewart and a few vintage buttons.  It is not often that I make a card  without some stamping on it, but here is one of those times!  Have a lovely weekend.  Hugs, Yvonne

Par Avion

There's a new challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  This week, the challenge is to create a project around the word "Fly."  How we interpret that is up to us.  Lots of ways to go, but I immediately was drawn to some fabulous Artistic Outpost stamps in my stash.  I began by spraying London Blue and Sunshine Yellow Dylusions Ink Sprays onto my card base.  The AO images were stamped on scrap card stock and added to the card base.  Sentiments, also by AO were added directly to the card base.  Tissue tape by Tim Holtz was also added.  (I could not resist adding the butterfly tissue tape given the challenge theme!)  A few black Liquid Pearls and my card was complete.  I chose not to add additional elements, which is hard for me, but seemed right.  Thanks so much for dropping by.  My dear husband has been in the hospital for nearly a week.  It has been quite a roller coaster ride, but I am hopeful he will return home tomorrow.  I trust you and yours are having a great week.  Fondly, Yvonne

Thinking of You

Wow! The weeks are just flying by.  Already we are up to Challenge #14 at Inkspirational.  This week, we have a color inkspiration of pink, bananna and slate.  

For my card, I selected a white card base to give maximum pop power to the featured colors.  I then looked for a clip art image by Crafty Individuals that included the colors above.  Next I gathered up scraps of background paper with these colors and pushed them around on the card front until they pleased my eye.  Some Tim Holtz tissue tape, a stamped sentiment, vintage buttons and seam binding and some lace and my card is complete.  I hope you will join us during the month of April at Inkspirational for a chance to win a monthly prize of a $15 gift certificate from our sponsor Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I truly appreciate it.  

R is for Rabbit

I am so glad to have found the Alpha Challenge by Craft Barn.  I really look forward to sharing my finished book with family at year end.  This week, the challenge is the letter "R."  I chose the word rabbit.  The rabbit collage image and the sentiments are by Artistic Outpost. The small rabbit is Gecko Galz and the metal accents are by Tim Holtz.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peak.  Hope all is well.  Fondly, Yvonne

Live in the Sunshine

It's Wednesday, and that means another Word Wednesday Challenge over at 365 Cards.  The word this week is "Country."  I chose to work with images from several plates by Artistic Outpost.  The card base was colored with Distress Inks and the images were stamped directly over or on card stock.  Bits of Tim Holtz tissue tape, vintage buttons and burlap string complete my card.  What will you create for today's challenge?  Wishing you a day of sunshine.  Hugs, Yvonne

Magesty

Wow, time for another Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn.  This time, there's a bit of a twist.  Not only are we focused on the M this time, we are specifically to choose a word between Ma and Me in the dictionary.  I decided upon the word "Majesty."  On each page of my ongoing book I am created, I am including the letter at the beginning of the section of the dictionary.  I thought it might be nice to use this stamp from England that I saved from a package.  The London Bridge and Welcome to London sentiment are both from Artistic Outpost.  The metal crown charm is from Tim Holtz.  It will be exciting to put all the pages of my book together at the end of the year.  I do think if I were to do the challenge next year, I would work directly in my dictionary.  It would give me much more real estate.  I do wonder how others are gluing pages together in between their art.  Would love to hear from anyone who has suggestions!  Thanks as always for stopping by.  Best, Yvonne

Inspired

Greetings! It is time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.  This time around, the theme is "Swirls."  It's a funny thing, a few years back swirls were all the rage.  I was beside myself until I could afford to get a set.  And as luck would have it, by the time I bought them, swirls were pretty much passe.  But, I had them for this challenge, so all is not lost and I am so glad swirls were chosen for the theme, because I really do like them!  For my card, I had a vision of swirls all around the perimeter of the card with Dylusion Spray Inks in the center.  Once that was complete, I decided to stamp these glorious figures by Stampington and Co. in various shades of Distress Ink, trim and distress them with Pumice Stone DI and mount them to the card front.  I added Tim Holtz Tissue Tape to the card front, painted a heart die cut with Picket Fence Distress Stain and distressed the edges with Peacock Feathers DI.  I resisted added a lot of embellishments to my card and in the end settled for some Black Liquid Pearls and a yellow feather.  I hope you will pop over to FSC to see what the entire Design Team has to inspire you to make and submit a creation of your own!  Thanks so much for dropping by today.  Hugs, Yvonne

Once Upon A Time

Greetings!  Challenge #7 at Inkspirational is upon us and this time, we are working on a Photo Inkspiration.  Our sponsor this month is  Eclectic Anthology and I chose several of their free images for my project above.  The February monthly winner will earn at $30 Gift Card at Eclectic Anthology!

The sentiment is from Stampington and Company.  I finished my card with some cheese cloth, lace, seam binding, liquid pearls and a beautiful bird charm from Tim Holtz.  I hope you will check out the rest of the Design Team's Inkspiration pieces and then join in.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Ever After!

Hello!  It has been a bit of crazy week with some family medical issues but I want to drop by tonight with a few posts.  This one is for the current challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show called Ever After.  I recently received a new set of stamps by Stampsmith with images and sentiments from The Wizard of Oz and thought they might work for the challenge.  I created grass, flowers and sky line with oil pastels.  The yellow brick road was embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder.  The images were stamped on glossy paper and partially tinted with Distress Markers, except for the shoes, which were colored with dark red glitter ink of a Sakura Pen.  Thanks for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

One for the Boys!

Greetings! It's Monday and that means a new challenge over at Make My Monday.  The theme this week is "One for the Boys."  I began by smooshing Old Paper, Pumice Stone and Evergreen Bough Distress Ink onto a craft mat, adding water and sopping up the inks.  The time pieces from the Auld Lang Syne plate from Artistic Outpost were stamped over the background.  The main image from the Think and Wonder plate, also by AO, was stamped on scrap card stock, matted and added to the card front.  The smaller image on the lower right is also from AO.  Lots of Tim Holtz elements finish off my guy card.  I found dark blue green buttons that go perfectly with the background, which really thrilled me.  Thanks for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne.  

12 Tags of 2013 - January

Okay!  I finally mustered up the courage to join the fun over at Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013!  I admit I was a bit worried, but I was totally amazed at how fast the whole process went with Tim's step by step directions.  Before I realized it, I was finished!  Tim's fabulous Tag for January 2013 is shown below.  I LOVE this style of art work and have slowly been building up my stash.  I just recently acquired the time piece embossing folder and cog wheel dies over at The Funkie Junkie and was thrilled to have them to use today.  I did not have the text below, but used another text from Tim Holtz.  Somewhere, I have a tin of film strip, but I could not find it, even though I just reorganized my craft studio, so I found an image of a film strip from a stamp purchased on eBay and used that.  

I truly love working with Distress Inks and tried Tim's trick of slicing through most of the top of my embossing folder to slide my tag into it.  But probably, my favorite part of this tag was stamping the ribbon and dragging it through Distress Ink.  Need to acquire more Distress Stains!!! Thanks for stopping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Just Between Us

Back again for another challenge over at Our Creative Corner.  This week, the challenge is "White with a Decorative Edge."  We are to create a project using only white with the exception of the sentiment, which obviously must have color and we are also required to include a decorative edge.  I love to see White on White but have probably only ever made one other such card in my life.  After adding my decorative edge, I layered a paper doily onto my card base.  The mannequin,  thread spool and paper button are Tim Hotlz die cutsthat were a gift from a design team sisters, Brenda.  Bits of cheese cloth and corrugated cardboard, ChitChat stickers, a feather button, seam binding and liquid pearls complete my card.  Thanks for stopping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Another Place and Time

Greetings!  I hope wherever you are, you are warm and crafting!  My first post today is for the CAS Challenge over at Make My Monday.  This week, we are to create a card based on the sketch below.  

I am the first to admit that I am uncomfortable with CAS!  How can something seemingly so simple be so difficult?  Not one to give up without trying, my take on the challenge is above.  The handsome gentlemen are from a Miniature Book by Crafty Individuals.  The cog is a Tim Holtz Die Cut purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and final embellishments include Viva Liquid Pearls and Idea-ology ChitChat Stickers.  I resisted the urge to add burlap string, button and more to my card, but it was not easy!  Thank you so much for dropping by.  It means so very much to me.  Best wishes, Yvonne