Count Your Blessings

Hello everyone, I wanted to share this pretty fall card with you all today. With the nights getting cooler, back to school for the kids, it's time to start thinking autumn. Spring and fall are my favorite times of the year, both bursting with color. Although fall is by far the most beautiful with all the reds, golds and yellows of the all the trees, it makes me feel slightly nervous about the coming winter. 

I did a simple rock 'n roll technique with these Papertrey Ink leaves, first inking with the lighter colors, then adding darker colors to the bottoms and edges of the leaves. Thank goodness PTI has coordinating leaf dies for this stamp set, cutting them all out by hand would be tedious work!

The first Label layer was cut out of double sided adhesive paper so I could apply the burnished velvet technique to it with Glitter Ritz. The camera doesn't show the true sparkle and beauty of it. 
I wanted some tiny pip berry branches among the colorful leaves, so I had to come with something on my own. I didn't have any premade in my stash. I took some leftover wires from paper flowers I had and colored them brown with a Copic. I twisted them in bunches of three, then with some Viva Decor Pearl pens, added the 'berries' to the tips. LOVE the look of these!


Thanks for visiting!


Most supplies from Papertrey Ink except ink: Adirondack, ribbon: twill, Spellbinders Labels and Martha Stewart edge punch. 

Festive Fairy

Good morning blog friends! I have another peek of one of the new stamps Lilli of the Valley is releasing soon. This one is called Festive Fairy and she is a beauty. (aren't they all!) 

She's colored with Copics to match these gorgeous papers from an older Stampin Up collection. I added lots of sparkle with Stickles to all the snow. 

The rose is from Wild Orchid Crafts. I didn't have a red one, so I sprayed a white rose with Red Velvet Glimmer Mist. There's only one problem when I do this though, the glue doesn't hold and it falls apart. Not really a big problem, I just glue them back together after it dries. You can always make do with what you have with a little ingenuity! I've also colored them with daubers dipped in ink pads, which works a little better because they don't get saturated. The color isn't as vibrant though. 


So which new images are your favorites from the upcoming release? Have you all been seeing the DT's gorgeous creations with them? I'm glad they're being released well in advance of the holidays, gives me plenty of time to get a head start on my Christmas cards. 


Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley 'Festive Fairy', sentiment from 'Merry Christmas' A5 stamp sheet
Ink: Memento, Distress
Paper: Heavenly White, SU, The Paper Co., PTI, Hammermill
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Lacy squares, SU twill ribbon, WOC rose, Glimmer Mist, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Copics, Stickles, EK Success tiny scallop punch, McGill decorative label punch

Vintage Witch-y

Good morning all! We finally got our power and internet back yesterday, happyhappyjoyjoy! I don't like being without internet, it makes me feel lost. 

I have a lot of card blogging to catch up on, so let's get to the good stuff. 

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Probably because I love all things creepy and spooky. I chose to make a card using a Waltzingmouse Stamps image from  'Cicely at Halloween'. I love this set of stamps, so classic, so vintage, so adorable!

I colored the image with my Copics and matted it on several different colored layers of scalloped circles. 

Then I created a 'ruffle' to go around the lacy circle using crepe paper I dyed with some Glimmer Mist. A pretty striped twill bow too...

I decorated the inside of the card using the same papers and the sentiment from the stamp set. LOVE the fonts used in this sentiment. 

Pretty creepy, huh?


Thanks for visiting!


Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Cicily at Halloween
Ink: Memento, Perfect Match, Distress
Paper: PTI, Hammermill, Scrap Girls 'Spellbound' digital kit
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities/Fleur de lis squares, EK Success bat punch, crepe paper, Glimmer Mist, Copics, twill ribbon

Angelic Harpist

Well I'm back in the groove again! It's easy to stamp when I don't have to work, go places, run errands, etc. Having a weekend off really gets the creativity into gear. 

Our power has been out since around noon Sunday, I had a very scary experience when I had to run out and pick up my son from his friend's house. I was driving along nervously, amazed at all the downed trees, raging creeks and lakes in our area, grateful that things weren't worse. As I pull up to an intersection, there was a pickup truck in front of me making a right turn when a HUGE tree slowly starts falling over not 100 yards away. It crashed down over the entire road, bringing power lines down with it. I sat in my car shocked, watching the other power lines swaying dangerously right overhead. If I had been going that way, or if the truck in front of me had gone through 30 seconds sooner, well- I don't even want to think what would've happened. Thank God no one was under that tree at that moment. 

At the time I'm writing this, everyone else still has no power, but fortunately we have a generator and have most electrical conveniences available. No washing machine, dryer or oven, but hey! Who wants to cook and do laundry if you don't have to, hee hee!

Enough drama, here's another peek at one of the new stamps LOTV is releasing soon. This one is called Angelic Harp. Beautiful isn't it?

I'm finally getting the hang of using my Gazelle, and this card base was one of the first things I downloaded from Paperthreads when I got it. I have a snowflake addiction I admit. I have more snowflake punches than I could count, and while browsing the many, many free cut files available  on the web, I downloaded many more. I just can't get enough of them! 

I colored the angel with pale Copic colors, I wanted to keep everything very light and delicate, like snowflakes. I even added a little silver bell to the satin bow (Wild Orchid Crafts) for a little jingle. 


Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Glimmer Mist
Paper: PTI shimmer c/s, Hammermill, Stardream, PTI 
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, satin ribbon, Swarovski crystal, Gazelle cutter, Viva Decor Pearl Pen, Copics, lace, Prima pearl/rhinestone flourish

Lili of the Valley Christmas Release II

Good morning friends!

As I type Hurricane Irene is working her voodoo even here in NE PA. The wind is pretty strong, and it's been raining since yesterday. I'm typing up my post as quick as possible in case the power and/or internet (NOOOOO) goes out. Most of yesterday morning I was without internet and I could not figure out why. I unplugged this, reset that, checked wires, connections all to no avail. I could not figure it out, finally got in touch with the cable company to see if there were any outages. There weren't, so a technician was sent, and sure enough, it was our 10 year old cable modem. I don't like being without internet...

Anyway, enough rambling, onto today's sneak peek. There's a new Christmas release coming from LOTV again, better thaw out your credit cards ladies! This cutie is called 'Little Holly'. 

I put my Gazelle to good use finally, cut out a bunch of fancy stuff with it. The three layer snowflake, and the pretty little flourishes.

Hope you've been enjoying all the peeks at the new stamps, I always get so excited when new LOTV stuff comes out! I'm never disappointed with the releases. 


I hope you're safe and sound on the East Coast, hopefully not too much damage has been done. I'm off to read the news now.


Thanks for visiting!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Perfect Match
Paper: Hammermill, Stardream, Heavenly White, PTI, Memory Box, Raspberry Road Designs digital papers
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, McGill circle punch, Copics, silver jingle bell, satin ribbon, Gazelle digital cutter, pearls, Stickles

A Year of Flowers Notecard Set

Hello everyone, sorry I've been so quiet, working on quite a few things behind the scenes. Believe it or not Christmas comes early when you're designing cards for stamp companies. We have to be, customers want to see Christmas things with plenty of time to create in time for the holidays!

Well, this project isn't necessarily for Christmas, but I needed to make a gift for a very generous friend of ours who happens to love my cards, lol. I decided to use every one of the stamps in Papertrey Ink's YOF set to create a boxed notecard set. 

I have never made a large set of cards like this, so I knew I would have to keep it somewhat simple for the amount of time I had to make them. Instead of intricate, detailed coloring of each flower image, I opted to gold emboss and water color. I didn't have to worry about painting out of the lines with embossing, so I went to town with the markers and water brush.
Here are the December and November flowers, Poinsettia and Chrysanthemum. 

September Morning Glory and October's Marigold:

July's Larkspurs and August's Gladiolas:

May's Lily of the Valley and June's Rose:

March's Daffodil and April's Sweet Peas:

And finally January's Carnation and February's Violet:

 I made the box for the cards using the Boxer from Crafter's Companion. Pretty simple, although it took me a long time to figure out how to do it the first time. I even added a little divider in the middle of the box to keep the cards from sliding into each other.

I really hope she likes it, this was truly a labor of love!


Now I really need some input from my faithful readers, if you have a minute to leave me a comment. Here's the question I have....


Should I add sentiments to these cards? I always have the problem of making a card with a birthday, or congratulations sentiment only to be asked to change it to something else, lol. What do you all think? 
Thanks for your input!


Most supplies from Papertrey Ink

IO Thursday Challenge Hostess Gifts

Hello everyone! It's time for our Impression Obsession Thursday challenge. This week we're making hostess gifts. I love making projects like this, a pretty package and a coordinating card make such a nice presentation. 

I made a little gable box with a window using my Gazelle and filled it with some fall colored Reese's Pieces. Some pretty patterned papers from Stampin Up and a gold silk bow finish the box off nicely. 

The wreath image was colored with SU and Tombow markers using a blender pen to give it that nice watercolor look. I love fall colors, deep reds, golds, rich browns, just gorgeous!


See the good thing about being a paper crafter is that we can always come up with last minute gifts using the supplies we have on hand. Some pretty papers, nice ribbon and tag and you can bang out a box or a bag in no time. You don't even have to have the chocolates or candy in the house, just stop at the convenience store on the way over to the dinner party and fill 'er up, lol!


Thanks for stopping by!


Stamps: Leaf Wreath, Happy Thanksgiving
Ink: Memento
Paper: Core'dinations, SU
Tools & Accessories: Silk ribbon, Spellbinders labels, EK Success scallop punch, SU markers, Tombow blender marker, Crystal Laquer, Stickles, Gazelle

For more hostess gift ideas check out what the other DT members are making:

Jeanne

Julie

Daniela

Dina

Laura