Sunday, June 30, 2013

House of Cards Debut Challenge

A BIG reminder everyone, the Debut challenge begins at House of Cards tomorrow, July 1!! This is so exciting for any number of reasons but a few is that it begins on my birthday week (Tuesday is my personal big day!) and secondly and more important is I am honored to be part of the HOC design team!

HOC is having a big debut give away for the month of July. Follow the HOC blog or like us on Facebook and you will be eligible to win this great prize.

 This great prize is for those in the USand Canada

This great prize is for those in the UK and Europe



This great gift card is for those in Australia and New Zealand





Please check out HOC blog for all the details and be sure to check in tomorrow for the first challenge of the month. The first week will feature the work of our Fun and Cute Team.



Thursday, June 27, 2013

Free to Play




Free, that is the inspiring word at CASology this week. I was sitting in my studio with my hand on my chin and I was thinking and thinking. Mr. George came in and said " you sure are thinking hard!" I told him about the challenge and that I couldn't come up with an idea. 

I went back and started pulling out boxes of old stamps, I was looking for a hand carved stamp of a horse that I made years ago, but it was no where to be found, instead I came across this funky little stamp. It just screamed FREE!! I used my favorite technique these days ombre stamping, but instead of stamping the funky fish girl from Picture Show- sorry they don't have a web site, I embraced my inner freedom and stamped them crooked. 

Finally do you remember when you were a child and everything you did was free and inspired- no constraints or worries you would do something wrong or someone might not like it- it was time to play and to enjoy the freedom of youth.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Blooming Gold

Well here I am posting for a second time today! I just had to, PTI is having a "Touch of Gold" blog hop. I only have 12 hours to participate, so there you have it. 


I don't usually emboss these days, let alone use gold- it is generally white embossing if anything. I had to dig a bit through my stash for the gold powder. I used my embroidered blooms set to make this royally pretty card. I hope I didn't overdo it with the gold. To keep it a bit tame I used kraft paper for the images.

Trio of Fishies

I just love these down-staff days! I don't have anything planned, no school work, cleaning, shopping etc. etc. It is a day just for myself! So when Mr. George asked me what I was gonna do today I said stamp!! 

I went through all the challenges and the fish challenge at CAS I thought great!! Unfortunately that challenge was over- boo hoo :(.  But CASE this sketch came through!! I loved their sketch this week and used my fish anyway. (from Rubber Soul- a give away from my friend who was downsizing her stamp collection) 

Here is this week's sketch:


It is a warm summer day here in Pennsylvania and I sure wouldn't mind being a fish and be swimming in a nice cool ocean. Just taking it easy and breathing.




Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Make-n-Take at New Horizon's Senior Center


For my Holistic Care of the Chronically Ill and Elderly class, I had to visit a Senior Center. While I was visiting New Horizons in Narberth Pa. I ended up with a card making gig! 

Today was the big day, my friend Pat and I did a make-n-take to gauge the interest of the seniors. It was quite the hit! They loved the cards and many were able to discover their artistic side.






They were all interested in further classes and I will be returning in July or September for more classes. It is so much fun to see new stampers, they are so free and are amazed by what they end up with. They all really got into it and decorated their envelopes, something they figured out on their own!



Many thanks to Anne Marie the program director for setting this up for me- even she was getting into the act. Look at that concentration!


A special thanks to my best buddy Pat for helping me out, I couldn't have done it without her!


Thursday, June 13, 2013

mellow yellow

How many of you remember Donovan singing- "they call me mellow yellow"? It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this weeks challenge at CASology- the theme is yellow. 

I grabbed a bunch of yellow ink pads and Avery Elle's All Squared Up stamp set following the Nichole Heady's tutorial, I created this mellow yellow ombre effect card. 

This was so much fun, I created one in blue also.


I like the yellow better, but for a guy this works and they won't notice the stamping imperfections.

So if you haven't participated in the challenge this week at CASology, click on the link to Donovan singing "MellowYellow" and be inspired!



Tuesday, June 11, 2013

You and me forever

My anniversary was a few weeks ago, but no reason, why I can't get started on next year's card is there? Nichole Heady from Papertrey Ink gave a great video tutorial on overlapping ombre effect and challenged us to come up with our own take. I personally am loving the ombre effect that is so popular right now and the overlap is a perfect way to show case it.

I pulled out my Love and Marriage set from Papertrey Ink to see what I could come up with. For some reason I thought the tree stamp in the set would make a cool ombre effect - boy was I wrong.


Then I remembered I am a CAS team member over at House of Cards, so come on- "keep it simple sista!"  I just used the border stamp and bingo- the card was created. I added the pearls that I colored with my copics with the same ombre effect.

So here is my entry for Make it Monday over at Inspired by Papertrey Ink.






A circle of daisies


Over the weekend, my buddy Patricia and I went for our major craft store crawl- Joannes, A.C. Moore and Michael's. i really only needed to get in essentials- adhesive, foam tape that kinda stuff- yeah right of course I bought more then that. But the pick of the weekend was this HA stamp from Michael's for 40% off!!



I was so visualizing all those pretty flowers in all different colors! But no- I had to jump right outside the box! Addicted to CAS was having a challenge using circles. All those pretty daisies trapped in circles, not free to sway in the summer breeze. It just isn't natural. :)
I stamped the individual flowers and using a circle punch, I punched them out. Using polka dot paper (loosely circles- well little tiny circles). I die cut three circles for my daisies to be placed in.


This pic shows the depth of the card. I am entering this at Make my Monday, where they are asking for CAS flower cards.

I am so glad to the sun out- The US Open is being hosted at Merion Golf Course this year and I am about 4 miles from it. Lots going on around here.


Monday, June 10, 2013

Lucky Stars!


So I have a free day to play, a new class starts tomorrow so there isn't much to do but read. I love the challenges at Fusion- you can either pick the sketch or the photo inspiration or combine them. I have tried really hard to be a Fusion Master, but the closest I have come is honorable mention. 

But like they say about the lottery, you can't win if you don't play! So here is this weeks entry- it is a fusion card.
I haven't entered a challenge recently and was feeling a bit uncreative, but after many attempts and my work space getting smaller and smaller- I am sure you know all about that huh? I came up with this card.



I have been using the Watercolor wonder set from Papertrey Ink, that I borrowed from my girlfriend- she may not get it back! : ) The only thing about this card that is disappointing is the white inking. You can't really see it, except as the resist. This time I used Memories unicorn white, but I have tried about 4 others and none work well.

What white inks do you use that you like? I sure would like to hear.

Have you checked out my announcement yet? Check out either of these sites-House of Cards or my blog.

Well I better go clean up my workspace or i won't have any room to create!


Introducing me at House of Cards


Playing in all these challenges the last year have paid off. Mynnette the owner of House of Cards challenge site saw one of my challenge entries and invited me to try out for her team. I sent in this card and yippee- she picked me to be on the CAS team!! Can you believe it?!!? Me- CAS!!??!!

The challenge site is a bit different then others, each week it features a different card style- so it will appeal to all artists.

Week one- Cute and Fun
Week two- CAS
Week three-classic and elegant
Week four - shabby and vintage

I hope you all will book mark the site and check in regularly for great challenges and inspiration!



Thursday, June 6, 2013

inspired by....

An unexpected day off!! Yay!! I thought I would share another anniversary card that Mr. George received this year. I know lots of us have trouble with guy cards, well I am so lucky cos' my guy loves cute card with cute critters on them. I mean how many guys like cards with teddies on them?!!

This cute critter card was inspired by Jill Foster posted on her Inspired by blog. here is Jill's card-

Needless to say George loved his cute critter card!

Have a great day all!

Monday, June 3, 2013

26 years and going strong

Between work and yet another paper to write for school, there has been no time to stamp. The few brief moments I had I was in a slump and couldn't create anything. How frustrating is that!?!!

Finally my 26th anniversary was looming and I had to get something together. While this isn't the most creative card, I liked the clouds off to the side and I bought this Unity stamp last year for our anniversary and never used it. I had to use it this year!

So here's to Mr. George for still putting up with this old gal after 26 years!!