Peace

The final LIM challenge for 2011 is

JUST ONE WORD

Mandi and Chrissie made this challenge a two weeker, thank goodness! I am just squeezing in at the eleventh hour, but I am so glad I got to play. The holidays were a blur, and back to work has been so busy. I wish I would win that lottery already!

My word is PEACE.  Tree Silhouette from Memory Box is such a peaceful image - I can almost hear the quiet of falling snow.  The sentiment is from Impression Obsession's Peace on Earth.  I stamped the silhouette image in black, then stamped it again with VersaMark and embossed it with SU Iridescent Ice emboss powder to give it sparkle.  It's hard to see that in the picture, but I love the way it looks. 

Wishing you many peaceful moments in 2012.  Thank you for visiting my blog, and for the lovely comments you share. 

Sparkly Christmas

This sparkly card is for this week's Just Add Ink challenge, which is to JUST ADD SPARKLE.

While perusing some blogs yesterday, I ran across THIS wonderful creation by Vicki Dutcher.  I loved it so much, and the design really put me in mind of a Memory Box stamp that I just bought.  This card is a CASE of Vicki's card.

I just love this Memory Box image, and the die that works with it.  OK - Christmas card number 4 on December 20th. Yikes!

Music Therapy

It"s been sooooooo long since I've been able to take some time to craft.  This morning after I finally got into my craft room and made this card for this week's LIM challenge, I was reminded that I need to do this to stay balanced.  It is my therapy, my grounding, my happy place.  I know that, but it really struck me today.  I thought about the other night when I was having dinner with family and friends. Here is a snippet of our conversation:

Friend: "Fill in the blank: the Christmas season has not started until..." 

Me: "Until I have had my Christmas nervous breakdown." 

My 12 year old son: "Well, I guess it must be Christmas!"

Yikes!!

I have been on overload like everyone else.  Today with the inspiration of my favorite duo, Chrissie and Mandi, I found my happy place again.  This week is Theme Week and Chrissie and Mandi have chosen MUSIC.

I have not captured the beauty of my card with this photo.  As Mandi said in her post, white on white is horrendous to photograph. The texture and finish of the two white papers work so beautifully together.  Here are the supplies I used:

 

Paper:  Real Red, textured linen, pearl finish.

Ink:  VersaMark, Ranger Antique Linen distress ink. VersaFine Onyx Black.

Stamps:  PTI Christmas Blessings, Waltzingmouse Musical Backgrounds.

Supplies:  Memory Box Flowering Christmas Tree die, gold embossing powder, self adhesive crystals, Scor-Tape, corner rounder. 

 

This is perhaps the third Christmas card I have made so far. Only 147 to go. LOL!  I did not send Christmas cards for the first time three years ago.  Since then each year I vow that I am going to make and send them, but every year I run out of time.  Maybe valentines...

 

In case this is my last post before Christmas, which is probably a sure bet, Christmas Blessings to you, however you spend this special time.  Wishing you peace and some time to enjoy the beauty that is at the heart of the season. Merry Christmas.

Homer and a Bit of Bling - A Thanksgiving story

This week's Less Is More challenge is a recipe - use a bit of BLING.

Well, I always brine my turkey for Thanksgiving, which involves putting the bird in a bath of wonderful things like cider, herbs, apples, carrots, etc. for 3-4 days. I have no room in my refrigerator for the large bucket that he needs to sit in, so my friend Dee boards my bird in her spare fridge every year.  After Thanksgiving every year, the bird sends Dee a thank you note, and gives her a little gift. It's very funny.  So this is Homer the Turkey's card for Dee.

I had these beautiful leaves in my stash of this and that - I made them a looooooooooong time ago when trying out the emboss resist technique, and never used them.  I think the leaf stamps are from Hero Arts, but I am not sure.  I mounted them on red then brown, and added a little jute. To add a little interest and texture, I embossed 2 score lines on top and a zigzag sewing line.  My bit o' bling is to the left of the sentiment - green self adhesive crystals.  The card has been sent along with a little gift of truffles and goat cheese to Homer's boarder.  Now on to Christmas.  I have very few cards made.  Gotta switch into gear now, or give it up for this year. Fa La La La La!

Bountiful

 

It's ONE LAYER CARD week again over at the Simply Less Is More challenge blog.

The theme for this week is LEAVES.

 

It is true, I have become quite comfortable with one layer cards.  When I saw this challenge, I decided to stamp a variety of leaf images in a variety of fall colors around a leaf die cut which would be used as a mask.  The leaf image would be revealed when the die cut was removed.  Well, that really bombed.  It looked awful.  I wasn't ready to give up though, so I did it in reverse and stamped inside the cutout.  That worked really well.

 

I stamped an image of small leaves and acorns from PTI's Autumn Abundance in fall colors inside the cutout, then sponged lightly with green to pop it.  When I removed the cutout, this lovely leaf revealed itself.  I added some score lines on top, rounded the corners, stamped my sentiment, and my creation was complete.

 

I am going to head over to the LIM blog to see the fabulous creations that the Limettes have made.  Thanks for stopping in today.  Thanks for dropping by!

  

Dude, You Rock

This is my take on this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

 CFC28: Create a Clean And Simple Tag or a project that has a tag on it.

I built my card around a tag that was attached to a pair of pants I bought for my sons a while ago. When I removed the tag from the pants, I thought to save it to use on a project some day.  When I saw this week's challenge, I started thinking about how I could use that tag I had stuffed in my box of bits & pieces.  SU's Extreme Skateboard image came to mind to go along with my tag, and I was on my way.

I  embossed most of the Kraft base with PTI's Woodgrain IP and brayered it with Crumb Cake ink.  I left just enough smooth space on the bottom for the sentiment .  The tag had a little red on it that ended up being covered by the skater image, so I decided to use red behind my SU Extreme Skateboard skater dude for some pop.  I was not happy with the blank space at the bottom of the tag, so I used PTI's Faux Ribbon and  added those red lines.  I think that was the perfect touch.  I like the way it came out and now I have a good man-card waiting in the wings.

Supplies:

Stamps~PTI Faux Ribbon, Modern Wood Mats and Signature Greetings, SU Extreme Skateboard.

Ink~Crumb Cake, PTI Pure Poppy.

Paper~Kraft, White, Riding Hood Red.

Accessories-PTI Mat Stack 1 & Layerz Mat Stack 1, PTI Woodgrain IP, Dimensionals, brayer, corner rounder, distressing tool.

Thank you for stopping in. Have a wonderful day!

Gratitude

Whew! Just getting this one in under the wire for this week's Less Is More challenge. 

This week it is a colour challenge with the colors of Red and Orange in remembrance of the 'Gunpowder plot' of 1605 in the UK.

I have had one of those weeks - work all day, out for various obligations every night.  I awoke this morning at 4:30 with a gazillion things in my head, including this design for my LIM card that I probably would not have time to make.  I could not go back to sleep, so I got up, made a cup of tea, and put my idea together.  I love the result.

I inked the leaves from PTI's Harvest Berries in Tangerine Tango.  I then used PTI's new Premium Dye Ink in  Pure Poppy to ink the outer edges of the leaves.  These new ink pads are shaped in such a way that you can cover a large or small area easily.  They are really wonderful.

I mounted the image on Cherry Cobbler, added some linen thread, popped it up with Dimensionals and added the sentiment from Autumn Word Borders by Hero Arts with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink.  Have to get back to work now.  So glad I had a little time to post this.  Have a great day and thank you for stopping by!