Christmas ideas

Today is Sept. 28 and Friday will be the first day of October, and October is the start of the last quarter of this year. Are you ready for Christmas?? Well, here is a card I designed to give you ideas. The background is made with a Cuttlebug folder and a light layer of white ink applied to the raised images. Next I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the white strip. Used a Spellbinder Label to cut the background for that beautiful 3-D tree. I alcohol inked the label and then heat embossed with gold detail EP a great background. Added a bow and the card is done.

More ideas will be coming, so stop back to see more inspirations.


Have a great day, thanks for stopping by,see you soon,

Barbara

Card Patterns Sketch 82

Hi Everyone,

Today's card is based on the card sketch from Card Patterns. The  pumpkin is cut from an AccuCut die that I own and I used paintable wallpaper instead of cardstock. I love the texture on this paper. Next I used inks and Copic markers to color the pumpkin. I then used VersaMark to ink all over the pumpkin and covered the pumpkin with shimmer embossing powder and heat set it.This gives the pumpkin a great glow. This verse is from Ippity stamps.

Well that is it for today, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

C4C55 (Crazy 4 Challanges)

Hi Stampers

Today's card celebrates the fall season. I love the two stamps that I used for this card. The scarecrow and the fence with the crow. What a great combination. The fence is a stamp from Ippity and the scarecrow is Sparkle N Sprinkle. The papers really compliment the card and show off the colors in the scarecrow. I didn't have red brads so I embossed gold ones with Red Apple embossing powder and now they really look great with the colors on the card. The card design is based on this weeks sketch shown at Crazy 4 Challenges blog. Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #72 (MMSC72)

Hi Everyone

It's time for this weeks Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.Their challenges are posted on Tuesday of each week. You can view the challenge on Priscillastyles blog.

I received some lace from a friend and the colors in the lace became the inspiration for this color combination.

Here is the design that I came up with based on the challenge sketch.

Here is a list of the items I used:

Cardstock - PopTones(Blu Raspberry and Gumdrop Green)

Patterned Paper - ProvoCraft

Flowers - Prima

Stamp Image - Ippity Stamps

Ink - Distressed Ink (Walnut Stain)

Lace - A gift from a friend

Brads



I hope you like the design

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #71 (MMSC71)

Fall is right around the corner and I have been grabbing the fall colored cardstock, inks, glitters and other embellishments to make cards and enter challenges.With that in mind, I decided to design a card and use the fall array of colors for my entry into the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. The sketch can be viewed on Priscillastyles blog and tomorrow is the last day to enter this challenge. Here is my entry based on their sketch.

Sentiment -Ippity Stamps
Ink - Distress Ink (Walnut Stain)
Flower - Heidi Swapp
Swirls -Tim Holtz's Harlequin Elements
Glitter -Sparkle N Sprinkle (Sunset)
Lace - Gift form a friend 
Cardstock - PopTones (Hot Fudge)
 
 
 
Well, that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,
 
Barbara

A Piece of Art

I sat down the other day to make a piece of art. Wanted to clear the cobwebs out of my mind and look what I wound up making.This turned out to be a wonderful and colorful piece of art. Well, I liked this piece so much I decided to mount it. This piece is larger that the cards that I usually photograph, so, it was hard keeping the background all white.

The colors really popped when I mounted on the black mat board. Now, I just have to find the right place to hang this in my house. Hmmmmm.... maybe my office.

Well that's it or now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Throw away paper transformed into beautiful flowers

I use paper that I call "stamp off" paper. You probably do too. This is paper I use to make sure I have the stamp right side up. Trust me, I have made mistakes and this stamp off paper does help. I make notes on this paper, I test marker colors, you know, this is the paper that becomes a test spot. What do you do with your stamp off paper?? Probably throw it away. Well, I save mine and when it gets full of stamped images or has a lot of ink on it from brayered backgrounds then it gets set aside . When I am ready to re-use it for it's next life, I add Color Wash or Tattered Angels Mist to the paper to further enhance it. I add 2 or 3 different colors of the Color Wash and/or Tattered Angels sprays over both sides of this paper and then let it dry.

After the paper is dry, I get my dies out and cut the paper up in these great flower shapes.

Then, I work some magic and wind up with paper flowers that look similar to those ones you see in scrapbook stores or those big box stores. And by doing this, reusing that stamp off paper, you are being "green".

                                                                                                               

Look at the end results, beautiful aren't they!! You can use these on cards, scrapbook pages, gift bags , make a pretty pin, the list is endless. I am sure you will come up with other uses.

So, start saving that paper you throw away and re purpose it, make something beautiful out of it.

Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Fall is in the Air

Pretty soon fall will be here, but in the meantime I made this card with fall in mind. Seems like 3-D cards are on my mind lately.Here is a shadow box card that I saw recently and decided to make one myself. Easy and definitely mailable. Hope you like this.

Well that's it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Breast Cancer Bricks

Breast cancer or cancer in general, seems to know no boundaries. I found out about an organization that helps raise money for Breast Cancer agencies. They raise money by having an auction of bricks. They are known as Bricks Along the Journey. Click here for their story. Every year they call on artists to submit a brick that shows creativity, originality and artistic talent. So I decided this would be fun to do and would help a worthwhile cause. I picked up my brick, (yes they even supply the brick) and thought about what my design would be. I had a few ideas but finally settled on a house. A house?? Well, in almost every house, there is someone who has been touched by cancer of some sort. A friend, a family member, a co-worker. So, that's why I chose a house.
A very dear friend of mine died of breast cancer a few years ago. What a trooper she was. She fought for 8 long years and to see her you would never know she had breast cancer. So, Helen, this brick is for you, my dear friend.

I turned my brick in this morning just under the wire, as this was due in yesterday. A very good friend of mine, and an artist to boot, Angie, also submitted a brick and talk about art. Her entry should win a prize. My brick looks so primitive in comparison. Click here to see her brick. I actually had the opportunity to see Angie's brick, up close and personal. Believe me when I say the pic of her brick just doesn't do it justice.

These bricks will be auctioned off at at the 9th Annual Breast Cancer Brick Auction, Sunday October 10, 2p.m. - 5 p.m. at the Cintas Center on Xavier Univ. in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is a wonderful cause and I plan on attending the auction, so you know I will be taking pictures and posting them here on the blog.

Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Summer is over......

Well summer is over and fall will officially be here 2 weeks from tomorrow, September 22. Thought I'd make a card that will remind you of a visit to the beach. It's a diorama card. It's 3-D. Have you ever made one of these type cards???This card is really pretty easy to make. It just takes a little longer and a few more pieces of cardstock, that 's all.

Can you visualize this in a Christmas theme?? I will have to make one and post it. The good news is these cards can be mailed. They fold flat and fit into an envelope, how cool is that.


Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Get your passports ready!!!! Have you heard the news?????

Sparkle N Sprinkle is hosting a cruise!!!! Yep, you heard me right, doesn't that sound like fun!! The cruise will be hosted by Sparkle N Sprinkle, Impression Obsession and The Paper Cut. Three fabulous companies, so you know there will be lots of fun, great classes and Make and Takes and goodies and great food and of course wonderful places to see. You will have the best of two or should I say three worlds, vacation, being on a cruise ship, and stamping. Now, what more could you ask for.

So click here for more info or click on the tab above to see more info. I'm sure there will be more info coming out a little later, so stay tuned.

Don't wait too long as space is limited!!!

Well I don't know about you but that's enough excitement for me for today.
That's it for now, thanks for stopping by, have a great day,

Barbara

Card Patterns Sketch 79

Hello and thanks for stopping by today,

Card Patterns has posted their latest challenge. So I went to my stamps to find the "perfect" stamp,the stars made me think of the heavens and angels and  after looking at a few stamps I found this wonderful image from Innovative Stamp Creations.

Here is the card I designed with the pattern in mind. This card was difficult to photograph, because the image is stamped on glossy paper. The paper picked up a glare in many of the positions that I tried. Also I noticed the lines in the stamped art work, also presented some visual problems in the photo.Those lines play tricks with the lens. Probably the best way to upload this would have been to scan the card. But here is the card. I stamped with StazOn on glossy paper. I used a  blender marker and markers (Marvy) to color the stamped image. Stars are from Spellbinders Nestabilities. Cardstocks - unknown.







Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara