I Was Featured! And Cards for Seniors

Hello!

Something very exciting happened for me. It turns out that the slimline card I shared here and submitted for the Create A Scene challenge on Lawn Fawnatics was featured along with 8 other cards! I was completely shocked. And tickled that it garnered attention. Thanks for letting me share. 

Lawn Fawnatics Blog Post

😀

Next up, I have a bunch of cards to share. I have shared before that I follow Kristie Marcotte and she makes lots of cards from a 6x6 paper pad. You can check her out here. 

Since Amy started working at the senior center, I've been making cards for her to take for the residents in the area where she works.  Today I'm sharing the cards I am having her take to work this week. Half of them I made this week using different sketches from different tutorials Kristie has posted. It's very slow going for me to do this and I only got about 1/2 the number needed completed. I went through my card stash and pulled the rest from there. The papers are Doodlebug. The sentiments are from various sets. The stamped images are from Sunny Studios(Beach Babies) or Hero Arts (the green popsicles and the smiling sun on the envelopes. I couldn't find the set, called Beach, on the Hero Arts website, so it could be retired). At the end I took a picture of the inside of the card and the envelope. I have a set from Mint Owl Studio that you can find here. It's so reasonably priced! And I love picking different images to stamp onto envelopes. 

Enjoy!

If you have any questions about products, let me know and I will do my best to answer. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a great day.

Hugs,

Sparkly Butterflies

Hi There!

On Wednesday, I came across a beautiful butterfly card created by Michelle Lupton for A Blog Named Hero. Okay, she had me at butterfly as many of you know I love butterflies. :) I was also struck by the rainbow of color on the single butterfly against the rest being white. I thought the butterfly looked familiar, but I didn't own the set she used. Well, I discovered I DO own the same butterfly stamp. I have a different set called Stamp and Cuts Butterfly sold at Joann's. Yay!

I cased her card and added a few twists to make it my own.

I colored the butterfly using my Koh-i-noor colored pencils. I blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

A twist I added was to not only sparkle up the colored butterfly, but also the rest of the butterflies I stamped. I really like the look. I also added some little butterflies instead of the hearts Michelle used. 

I used MFT's Make a Wish set for the sentiment and went over the Wish (as well as those little butterflies) with my black Wink of Stella. The sentiment is all on one line. I inked just the Wish first. Then I cleaned the stamp really well and inked Make a and covered the Wish with some post it note to make sure no stray stamping showed up. 

I even stamped decorated the inside just a bit.

The sentiment is from a Penny Black set called Sprinkles and Smiles

I always forget to do that. :)

I'm very happy with the final card. 

Thanks so much for the visit. I hope you are having a happy day!

Edited to add: Carol encouraged me to enter this card in a challenge at Happy Little Stampers, here. :)

Hugs,

Jeanne

Colored Today~Works in Progress~Double Rainbow!

Hi There!

Thank you for the lovely comments on my posts recently. You all are making me feel pretty darn good about my coloring attempts. I'm tickled you like what I have been sharing. 

I've got some works in progress to share today in honor of that 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I am struggling to work on cards because I mainly just feel like coloring in my books. 

A while ago I saw this card  and I loved all the elements as well as the colors and how she fit them into the circle. I hemmed and hawed about getting the set and finally went ahead and ordered it. Here's my copy of what the creator did. I colored with my pencils instead of Copics. 

I like it for the most part. I'm not sure if I like where I stamped the sentiment. That might change. Setting the stamps up on my MISTI made short work of the stamping. I got the little circles from some other stamp sets I own, they don't come with the Beach set from Hero Arts. Those are stamped randomly. I really like the fun, summery feel of the images. 

And I've taken some pictures of the page I started the other day. 

I colored the leaves that day. Yep, it has a lot of leaves! I came across this video by The Art Spirits and was completely smitten by the colorful leaves. 

Yesterday I got the house basically done. Today I added the shadows to the house and the trim. I also started on the trunk and branches. 

This can be enlarged to see the work close up.

I am enjoying the color choices I am making this time. :)

And finally,

we had some thunderstorms roll through during the afternoon. After we finished dinner and as I sat down to work on this post I noticed the sun was coming out while it was still raining. I hoped we might be able to see a rainbow. 

Here's what we saw from our driveway!

So pretty!

Well, that's it from me today.

Thanks so very much for stopping by. 

I hope you've had a marvelous Monday!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Watercolored Butterfly Hello

Hello!

I was able to head into my crafty space this afternoon and I tried something new for me. And I think it worked out better than I'd hoped it would. :)

My friend Kay participated in a blog hop for Papertrey Ink way back in February. She posted a sneak  peek of  her card here. One of the things I especially liked about this card was her use of the quatrefoil pattern and distress inks. I copied this idea with a Memory Box stencil I picked up at my local scrapbook store (probably back in February). I used the same inks and that was as far as I got that day. This background piece has been sitting on my desk ever since. 

Then a week or so ago, I took a bit of a drive to a store that sells all the colors of Prismacolor pencils. I had some holes in my collection and wanted to fill them. :) They were having a watercolor demonstration. As you regular readers know, I am very much watercolor challenged, but I stopped to chat with the gal working the demonstration. She showed me how to use watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils. I have had a set or two of watercolor pencils collecting dust for years. I even have some watercolor crayons somewhere. Seeing someone demonstrate the technique in person was so helpful! I even got to try it under her watchful eye. Ever since that demo, I've wanted to try my hand at using my watercolor pencils. (I still have to look for the watercolor crayons I think I own).

I have to say, I'm quite pleased at how this turned out!

I used a new Hero Arts butterfly stamp and die set that I found at Joann's. Last month I came across this post and the idea came to mind of what I would try to do!

I used a Dazzle Versamark ink in Champagne and clear embossing powder to emboss the butterflies. Then I used General's brand watercolor pencils to lightly color along the edge of the embossed lines. I pulled out the color with a paintbrush dipped in water. 

I actually achieved a look that I liked! Whoo hoo! I have to say, I do like the control I felt I had with the pencils. 

I popped the large butterfly up with some foam dots. You can't really tell in the photo, but the body is covered with Wink of Stella shimmer. 

Finally, a watercolor session that didn't end in my being completely frustrated. 

There may be a little hope for me yet. 

Thanks ever so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a great day!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Thankful Wreath Card and Crochet Tablerunner

Last year I saw this card by Lisa Spangler on the Hero Arts blog and loved the wreath she created. I so wanted to try my hand at creating it, but with all the stamp sets I own, not one of them really worked to create a wreath even remotely similar to the one Lisa created. I couldn't find the set locally and I was bummed. I know I could have ordered it online then, but I never did. Fast forward to August, 2014 and I was roaming Michaels just to see what they had in the way of new Fall/Halloween schtuff. Lo and behold, I came across the Hero Arts stamp set I would need to recreate the wreath from last year! How cool is that?! Of course I snatched it up with a 40% off coupon and went along my merry way.

Last week I sat down to try my hand at the wreath. I quickly discovered I'm no good at eyeballing a circular shape with wood mounted stamps. I tried several times and chucked each effort. Then I got the bright idea to lightly draw a circle and use it as my guide. Success! Completely cased, but I like it!

Hero Arts - Thankful stamp set L295

Close to My Heart Inks - Autumn Terracotta, Cranberry, Garden Green, Saddle, Sunflower

Gems/Bling - My stash/Michaels/Hobby Lobby

I've also been working on a crochet project for our "new to us" dining table. We replaced a really light wood rectangular table with a darker, more dining room like oval table a couple of weeks ago. The napkin holder we have is a bit too small for the size of the new table, so I decided to crochet a table runner. I found a free pattern I liked and got to work. I just finished it today and thought I'd share. I didn't really block it, so it needs to be straightened a bit, but I like it. It is basically made of motifs that you add as you go and then has a triple crochet border. 

Aunt Lydia's Fashion Crochet Thread size 3

3.5mm crochet hook

That's it from me for today. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Jeanne

Happy Scene and Embossed Owl Card

This card by Kay just plain makes me happy. Don't really know why, but it does.

Because I keep thinking about it, I decided to recreate it, using my own supplies. Not sure if I did it justice, but I like what I came up with.

Most of the cardstock is American Crafts, but the light green is Co-ordinations. The rainbow is made using circle Nestabilities. I cut off the excess with my scissors. The sun, clouds, "stitching" and sentiment are Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine set and the flowers are from Blissful Botanicals. I had extras of the flowers I colored from a previous card and decided to use them here. You can't really tell from the photo, but I added some Wink of Stella clear to the sun. So that's my own little sunny scene.

Thanks again for the inspiration, Kay!

My second card was inspired by this card. I liked the owl and the woodgrain, although I opted not to make it a peek-a-boo card. 

When my dad was here, he bought me a 12 pencil set of Inktense pencils. (Thanks, Dad!) I played around with them on the owl image(from Hero Arts Lil Hoot), which is stamped on watercolor paper. I used the Hero Arts Woodgrain stamp and then embossed the background piece of kraft cardstock with a woodgrain folder (Paper Studio/Hobby Lobby). This has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks because I wasn't sure I really liked it, but I didn't know what else to do with it. I added the three black gems and decided to call it good. 

That's it from me today. I hope you've had a great weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by. 

*Ü*

Jeanne

Thoughtful Flowers Card

I came across this pretty card on Pinterest this morning and immediately wanted to see if I could make a version of it. I had the Hero Arts cling Garden Bouquet stamp, but I didn't have the Distress Inks. That's okay, I had some new to me Close To My Heart ink pads that I felt would work instead. Here's my version of the card:

The colors from top to bottom are: Creme Brulee, Sunset, Smoothie, and Pear. I just sponged the colors onto the one inch strips I cut after I heat embossed the image with white. Then I adhered the strips to a scrap piece of paper and foam dotted that piece to the card base. The sentiment is from a Hero Art clear stamp set about friendship. It doesn't have a name on the packaging. Looking at it now, though, I might have to change it because it doesn't really make sense now that I see it this way!

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Jeanne

*Ü*

Snowflake Cards

I saw some really nice cards showcasing snowflakes while blog reading (here and here-you will have to scroll down to find the cards I saw...the kraft one was the inside of a card) and tried my hand at creating them for myself using a Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly set

These were stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. The blue is Ocean from CTMH. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from Sparkle and Cheer by Taylored Expressions.

There is something really appealing to me with white ink on kraft cardstock. I used CTMH's pigment white and Desert Sand ink 

We haven't seen too many snowflakes around here just yet. I know they will be coming sooner or later though.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope your week is off to a great start.

I'm Inspired

Kay Miller creates the most tantalizing cards on her My Joyful Moments blog. I could pin and/or copy just about everything she creates because I so like her design style. I'm hoping she won't be offended by my copy and steal just about everything on the card she posted here. Okay, well, I didn't have the same stamps, so I did choose those myself, but you can see the style is all Kay. 

I used Close To My Heart Stamps (Girls Rock and Hello Blooms) and a Hero Arts set that doesn't have a name, but all the stamps are sentiments about friends and friendship. I used Honey, Goldrush, Chocolate and Olive ink (CTMH) and Happy Harvest paper from Doodlebug. I also added one of those Sprinkles from Doodlebug as well. It may be hard to tell, but I also popped up the second layer of flowers. 

Thanks for the inspiration, Kay!