Giving Thanks

Hello friends!
It's been too long since I last posted and I wanted you all to know I'm still kickin' :)  Unfortunately life's been a bit stressful lately due to an extremely difficult personal crisis one of my family members is going through.  I don't want to go into any details out of respect for their privacy but I can tell you it's been a tough time for my whole family.  Lots of tears and lots of prayers.  Doesn't always leave alot of energy for anything else. 

While I just haven't been "feeling it" lately with respect to creating for a specific contest I have been trying to do alot of creating just to create.  Wanted to share a couple of these cards with you:

Was totally inspired by Joy to create this one!  I've had this poinsettia stamp from Holly Berry House for a long time.  I embossed it in white several times on some old book pages, colored it with distress markers then heavily spritzed it with perfect pearls and water.  The shine is magnificent IRL!  I paired it with some pp from my fave BG Aspen Frost collection and a sentiment from Hero Arts.


 

The last card I made with this Memory Box window frame die was an outside looking in scene.  This time I wanted it to be inside looking out :)  Stamped Hero Arts woodgrain bg on the die cut window frame.  The Hero Arts evergreen trees were embossed on watercolor paper then watercolored with distress markers.  Difficult to see in the photo but I added lots of stickles to the finished wintry scene.  Sentiment is also from Hero Arts.

Was inspired by Julie's card on the Hero Arts blog to create this one.  Used my all-time fave Hero Arts wreath stamp, my beloved Basic Grey Aspen Frost pp's and a sentiment from my new fave Hero Arts holiday sentiment set :)

And last but not least is this little cutie patootie I die cut from Cricut Winter Frolic cart and paired with a Hero Arts sentiment.  Last year I searched high and low for this cartridge at all the area craft stores with no luck.  One of the last gifts I opened on Christmas day was from "Santa" and it contained this cartridge :)  When my dh was on an overnight hunting trip he did a little "hunting" at that area's craft stores and found it!  So thankful for him and his thoughtfulness:)

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving Day tomorrow may it be a blessed one!!  So thankful for all of you!!  Love this inspiring and supportive online community to bits!!

Hugs,

Robin

Frosty Christmas

Got inky yesterday by white embossing Hero Arts CG330 Flower Dot Pattern on a piece of watercolor paper, inking it up with a shaded lilac distress re-inker and broken china and picket fence distress stains then spritzing heavily with a mixture of perfect pearls and water.  I happened to notice a snowflake I had die cut a few days ago from shimmery white cs on my desk and thought it would pair nicely with my inked panel to create a cool, frosty Christmas card :)

Other Materials Used:  Hero Arts clear gems, Martha Stewart ribbon, Stampin' Up cs and pp, Papertrey ink white cs, Stamp On It shimmer cs, Cricut Christmas Noel cart

I'm entering this in the current Hero Arts challenge that ends tomorrow as it fits both the holiday card theme and one of the challenge sketches (bottom right):



Happy Wednesday!  Thanks for all your comments!

Sending Christmas Wishes

Don't fall off your chair but I actually have another Christmas card to share and it was NOT made with any BG Aspen Frost papers!

I don't think I'll ever tire of these roses from Hero Arts CG434 Floral Blossoms:)  I inked them up with a Ranger barn door distress marker and a Stampin' Up handsome hunter marker before stamping on a piece of Papertrey ink rustic white cs.  The old Stampin' Up Merry Christmas sentiment was framed with the tag from Hero Arts CL588 Sending You Love and die cut with the matching HA frame cut.  I matted the stamped piece with some diagonally striped pp from the Echo Park Christmas This & That collection - I like the old fashioned wallpaper feel it gives this. 
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up handsome hunter cs, Queen & Co red pearls, Ranger antique linen distress ink (to lightly distress edges)

Of course I'll be popping this into the current Hero Arts challenge  



All the sunshine from yesterday has disappeared and it looks like it may rain all day  - good excuse to stay inside and make more cards:)  Thanks for all your lovely comments!

Believe

Imagine that!  Another Christmas card created with Basic Grey Aspen Frost designer papers :)

I love how the piece I used in the background really looks like birch bark!  The reindeer is from Hero Arts CL540 Christmas Reindeer and the sentiment circle from Hero Arts CL634 Believe.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up soft suede and pool party cs, Martha Stewart baker's twine, Papertrey ink scalloped border die, copic markers, googly eyes from stash, Spellbinder circle Nestie

I'm entering this in the current Hero Arts challenge:

Happy Monday everyone!

Peace

Seems like the Basic Grey Aspen Frost collection is definitely going to be my "go to" paper for making Christmas cards this year :)

I white embossed Hero Arts CG211 Magical Background on a piece of solid paper from this collection.  The sentiment (stamped in Ranger Barn Door distress ink) is from Hero Arts CL540 Christmas Reindeer.  The Arboscello Tree and Nestled Bird are both Memory Box dies.  It took a bit of effort to die cut the tree (used both selective shimming with masking tape AND the MB metal shim) but it was worth it. 
Other Materials Used:  Hero Arts clear gems, Papertrey ink white cs, WPlus 9 banner die

I'm going to enter this in the current Hero Arts challenge :



Just realized the colors I used in my card kinda match the colors in the challenge banner :)

Happy weekend everyone!

Runway Inspired Challenge #22 - Tommy Hilfiger

I haven't played along with a Runway Inspired Challenge in a long time and while the inspiration is from Tommy Hilfiger's Spring 2013 collection I couldn't help but think of Christmas when I saw it:

I used some new products (pp from Echo Park This & That Christmas 6 x 6 pad, sentiment circle from Hero Arts C634 Believe and Cuttlebug Christmas Stitches embossing border) to create my card:



Other Materials Used:  Cricut Christmas Noel cart (die cut snowflake), Stampin' Up old olive cs and ink, Papertrey ink rustic white cs, Hero Arts clear gems, Queen & Co red gems, Ranger antique linen distress ink (to lightly distress all edges), W R Memory Keepers corner rounder

I'm also going to enter this in the current Hero Arts challenge:



Happy creating and thanks for all your lovely comments!

SSS Challenge: Joy's Eerie Inspiration Board

Take a look at the eerie inspiration for the current Simon Says Stamp challenge:

When it comes to Halloween I'm all about the candy :)

I used Hero Arts H5330 Girl Holding Flowers (legs only) and gave her a spooky costume by die cutting a treat bag from Cricut Doodlecharms cart, flipping it over and die cutting it again with an oval Nestie.  The candy and trick or treat bag images are from an old Stampin' Up set.  Sentiment came from a $1 clear set.  All edges were lightly distressed with Ranger antique linen.

Other Materials Used:  Ranger dusty concord, worn lipstick and spiced marmalade distress inks, Papertrey ink rustic white cs, WPlus 9 banner die, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, Spellbinder circle Nestie, googly eyes

This card will go out in our youngest niece's Halloween care package - Katie's in her first year at Clemson in S.C. :)  Happy Wednesday everyone!

Feeling Merry!

Still having a hard time getting back into the swing of creating and blogging after last month's vacation :)  Decided to break out my new pad of Basic Grey Aspen Frost pp's and one of the new Hero Arts sets that coordinates with this BG collection called Believe (CL634) to get the old mojo goin' again:

First I white embossed Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves on a piece of solid pp from the Aspen Frost collection then overstamped it in Ranger peeled paint distress ink.  After die cutting a circle from the middle of the wreath I adhered pp strips on each side then attached it to the front of the card using foam tape.  The Merry sentiment circle from CL634 Believe was stamped in Ranger barn door distress ink, die cut and then adhered in center of wreath as shown.  I really like how this turned out and plan to do several variations using different color combos and sentiment circles from this set.

Other Materials Used:  Papertrey ink rustic white cs, Hero Arts clear gems, Queen & Co red gems and green pearls, Michael's pearls, Spellbinder circle nestie

I know I'm cutting it close but since I did use a die cut circle I'm entering this in the current Simon Says Stamp challenge to use dies and/or punches.

And there's still plenty of time to enter this month's Hero Arts contest:

Thanks for all your kind comments!

The Return of Teddy Santa!

One of this month's contest themes at Hero Arts is holiday cards so I pulled out one of my oldies but goodies from 2005 Teddy Santa (E3660) to create one:

Tried to update him a little by pairing him with some trendy die cut words.  The letters were die cut from Echo Park Dots & Stripes pp using Cricut Kate's ABC's cart.  I popped up both Teddy Santa and the first "r" in merry with some foam tape. 
Other Materials Used:  Papertrey ink white cs and scalloped border die, Bo Bunny pp, W R Memory Keepers corner rounder, Stampin' Up kraft and red cs, silver gel pen, Michael's black pearls


Thought I'd share a few more trip pics from Barcelona, Spain.  One of the places we visited was Parc Guell (designed by Gaudi).  I cannot overstate how much I loved all the mosaics!  Everytime I look at these pictures I feel a card comin' on :)

Here's the hubster and I hamming it up on the serpentine bench:) Check out the two whimsical buildings in the background! 

This next pic is a shot of the ceiling and columns underneath the area above:

And here's a closeup shot of one of those gorgeous ceiling mosaics:

Doesn't the salamander look like he's drooling???  Hee! :

Here's a shot of the entrance to the park to give some perspective:

Closeup of one of the square mosaics you see above:

And here I am relaxing in what looks like a huge mouth!!! :

Happy Friday everyone!  Thanks for all your lovely comments!

Enjoy the Ride & Honey, I'm Home!

It's always SO HARD for me to get back into the swing of creating and blogging after returning from vacation.  I think part of the problem for me is having too many ideas!  Course it didn't help that I needed to make a "man" card for my BIL's birthday next week -making masculine cards just isn't my "thing" :)  I took my inspiration from the current Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger  :

This image made me think of some colorful pp that's part of My Mind's Eye Fly a Kite collection.  Now the OUTSIDE of my card is pretty simple -just some diecutting and minimal stamping:

I had alot of fun finishing off the INSIDE of the card:

Never made a pop-up card before and it's alot easier to do than I thought!  My BIL and SIL really enjoy spending some of their free time motorcycling :) 

Materials Used:  Hero Arts Birthday (outside sentiment) and Going (motorcycle) sets, Penny Black Hello Gorgeous (inside sentiment), Stamp Art pine tree, Stampscapes Duck Trio in Flight, Papertrey ink cloud die, Cuttlebug border embossing folder, Cricut Kate's ABC's (number die cut), Spellbinder's Nestie, WPlus 9 banner dies, My Mind's Eye Be Merry pp, Stampin' Up red and kraft cs, Hero Arts eggshell layering paper, Ranger walnut stain, tumbled glass and peeled paint distress inks, SU so saffron ink, HA latte ink, silver gel pen

My husband and I returned from Madrid, Spain last Monday night right before the violent protests erupted.  We knew something was brewing as evidenced by the Occupy Wallstreet-like camps set up in some of the plazas and the very prominent police presence throughout the city especially at night.  None of this dampened our enthusiasm and we experienced as much as we could in the too short of time we had.  My husband is quite the shutterbug - he took over 700 photos on this trip! - and I plan to share some of them in my blog posts starting with this one :)

We spent three days in Barcelona before taking the train to Madrid.  I read somewhere that a person really can't appreciate the essence of Barcelona without walking its streets.  Can't see this stuff in a museum:

Gaudi's infamous Casa Batllo - don't the columns look like bones?!! :

Gaudi was really ahead of his time - can you believe he actually had to sue the people who commissioned him to build Casa Mila to get his money because they didn't like it??!! :

Aren't the mosaics and intricate ironwork adorning this building's facade just beautiful??!!  I was almost jealous of the couple we watched walk arm-in-arm into the building:

Rainbow cake - Yes, please!!!! :

Doesn't he remind you of the Hero Art's owls??!!  :)

Fishing bobbers as ornamentation anyone??!!! :

You can tell my husband had hunting season on his mind - he was quite enamored with all the "camoflauge" trees we saw during our walks :)



Thanks for stopping by!  I've been "lurking" around everyone's blogs when I could and will now have time to actually comment :) 

Love Ewe Dearly and Adios Amigos!

One last card before I unplug for awhile:

I'm linking this up to the Moxie Fab World: Movement Challenge.  When I sat down to put the card's elements together I really thought about their placement with respect to the movement/flow of the design:  fluffy cloud to fluffy sheep to sentiment.  Even if one's eye starts at the fluffy ewe it moves to the pink "ewe" to the pink heart and back up to the cloud.

The sentiment is a combination of one from the Paper Smooches set Pretty Phrases and Lawn Fawn set Critters on the Farm.  The ewe from the same Lawn Fawn set was embossed on white and black cs then paper pieced.  Cloud and hearts are from Hero Arts Right At Home set.  Sun is from Hero Arts Kiss From the Sun.
Other Materials Used:  Papertrey ink cs, Stampin' Up cs, Amy Tangerine Sketchbook pp, My Favorite Things Die-namics fresh cut grass die, Hero Arts Small Tag frame cut, Michael's black pearls., W R Memory Keepers corner rounder, Spellbinder Nestie, Hero Arts mid-tone pool ink, Ranger worn lipstick distress marker

I'm also linking this up to the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge: We're So Trendy (the colors I used are kinda neon).

Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit everyone's blogs one last time before my hubby and I take off for vacation :)  Don't know why I always feel like the house has to be clean before we go away - it's not like the cat really cares! And while I agonize over every item I place in the suitcase the hubster will probably play a round of golf in the morning and throw his stuff in the bag a few minutes before his brother comes to take us to the airport......*Sigh*

The card - and the trip - are to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary.  The thing about getting married a bit later in life is you can't necessarily wait until your 40th anniversary to go on an amazing trip.  So we're off to Spain to wash our tapas down with some sangria and to gawk in person over the work of legends like El Greco, Picasso and Gaudi that so far for us have just been small images on a screen or in a coffee table book:)

As always, thanks for your sweet and supportive comments and happy creating!!

Play Date Cafe Challenge#148 and A Blog Named Hero Challenge

When I saw the current color story at the Play Date Cafe I knew I wanted to try to make these colors work for a Christmas card:

I pulled out some oldies but goodies from my stash of Hero Arts stamps and did alot of silver embossing:



Using three snowflakes from Hero Arts CL562 attached to an acrylic block I repeatedly stamped them in Versamark dazzle ink on a piece of Stampin' Up gray cs then sponged the edges with Colorbox frost white pigment ink.  The Big Pine Bough and Flourish Ornament from Hero Arts were embossed with Inkadinkado silver embossing powder.  Sentiment from Hero Arts CL543 Very Merry Christmas was stamped with Ranger faded jeans distress ink.  Finished it all of with some peach seam binding from Martha Stewart.

Other Materials Used:  Papertrey ink enchanted evening cs, W R Memory Keepers corner rounder, Hero Arts gems

I'm also linking this up to the current challenge at A Blog Named Hero:

Thanks for all your lovely comments!

Hero Arts September 2012A Challenge and A Blog Named Hero Challenge #11: Who's The Boss

Combined two of this month's challenge themes at the Hero Arts blog (Fall Feast and A Stamp for All Seasons) to create a Halloween themed card:

I stamped and embossed Hero Arts H5244 Winter Tree (from 2009) on white cs.  After masking off an area for a "moon" I inked up my brayer with a spectrum pad from Stampin' Up/Tsukineko called Pumpkin Patch and rolled away!  I stamped a piece of olive cs with Hero Arts S5507 Envelope Pattern to create the grassy knoll. 
Other Materials Used:  Inkadinkado sentiment, American Crafts buttons, Papertrey ink white cs, WPlus9 banner die, DCWV pp, Memory Box bird die, Michael's black cs

Since I used embossing in my design I'm also linking this up to the current A Blog Named Hero challenge:



Hope everyone has a great weekend!  We are off to the vintage car show and road "race" today in Watkins Glen, NY!

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: A Pin Therein

I'm glad the deadline was extended for the current Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger:

The baby of one of the owners of the winery where I work part-time is due in a few weeks:)  I've had this idea for a baby card since I saw the trigger:

I've wanted to join the hexie craze like everyone else and didn't realize one of my Cricut cartridges (Winter Woodland) contains this image!  Love it when I can use something I already have:)  I die cut hexies from 4 different pp's from Stampin' Up, My Mind's Eye and Jillibean Soup.  I glued them to a piece of white cs trimming as needed.  Using a Nestie I die cut a scalloped circle from PTI rustic white cs and then stamped the crib and sentiment from studio g in Ranger walnut stain distress ink. Edges were lightly inked with Ranger antique linen distress ink.

Other Materials Used:  Martha Stewart seam binding, JoAnn's heart button, Creative Impressions twine, lace and stick pins from stash, Stampin' Up pool party and chocolate chip cs

As always, thanks for your encouraging comments!

Moxie Fab World Minty Fresh Challenge (Take 3!) and SSS Anything Goes

Squeaking one last entry in the Moxie Fab World Minty Fresh Challenge that ends today!

I was flipping through a Garnet Hill catalog and saw the cutest pair of rose print jammie pants and thought to myself "Hey, I can recreate that pattern with my stamps!":

And here's my card:



Used some rose and leaf images from Papertrey Ink The Sweet Life set inked up with Ranger spun sugar and worn lipstick distress inks and a Marvy spring green marker.  Sentiment is from Hero Arts CL342 Everyday Sayings.  I stamped one of the rose layers with a Tsukineko Glue Pad and sprinkled with Martha Stewart coarse crytal glitter as I wanted that particular rose to go along with the sentiment :)  The ruched fabric strip is from JoAnn's (Fabric Central).

Other Materials Used:  Hero Arts clear gems, Papertrey Ink white cs

I'm also linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for all your lovely comments!  Hope everyone has a Happy Labor Day!  The stinky thing about only working part-time now is that I actually have to labor on Labor Day - boo:(