I've been honoured with a Blog Award !

Hi there !    I've come down with a terrible cold which has caused me to lose my voice, cough too much and I have no energy.    Last night I was really feeling the effects but I was cheered up when I read a message that Sue over at Sue's Crafty Corner has honoured me with this Blog award !  Thank you Sue for all your kind words and visits to my Blog.   Sue creates beautiful cards, check them out at her Blog  !

I was curious about what the name of this award translates to in English.   So I googled and found that Liebster is German and most likely translates to mean Beloved or Favourite.   Very sweet !    This award is designed to help promote favourite Blogs that have less than 200 followers.  

Part of receiving the award means a little challenge and here are the steps I need to take:

Pass on the award to five other people, whose Blogs have inspired me,  and also as mentioned it needs to be someone who has less than 200 followers.

Add a comment on their blog, so that they know about it.

Link back to the person who gave me the award and thank them. (which I have done above ! )

Post the award on my blog.

It's challenging to just pick five.  Listed are the ladies (in alphabetic order) that I would like to give this award to for giving me so much inspiration and support.     I felt very honoured when Sue passed this to me and I hope you feel the same.     However it's also not necessary to me that you mention my name.

Donna at Creative Smiles
Ellen at The Serendipitous Stamper 
Helen at Crop Circles
Marja at Marja's Stamp Addiction
Miranda at 'Mir'acle art Inspirations

Thank you again Sue for being so kind and now I need to leave a message at the above Blogs !
Have a great day
Shirley

Green for St Patricks Day

Hello everyone !   I'm excited to learn this morning that I won a $25 shopping spree (random draw)  for last week's Challenge at Outlines Rubber Stamps !   Thank you Outlines !

The Challenge theme at Outlines this week is St Patrick's Day.     You will find beautiful DT creations and details here at Outlines Blog.      St Patrick's Day makes me think of Shamrocks, Everything Green & a Pot of Gold.    I don't own any Shamrock or St Patrick's themed stamps so I decided to create a card with lots of Green & Gold which hopefully suits the theme of this challenge!

The following Outline Stamps were used:    J986 Ellason Background, E224 Funky Flower 2 & F220 Mandala 4.  The Funky Flower & Mandala 4 stamps are so cool & work well with the larger Outline Mandala stamps to create many different designs.   I own quite a few !

My special & creative Aunt (Tantje) Saakje introduced me to Mandalas while on one my visits with her in the Netherlands many years ago and I fell in love with them.  She creates beautiful ones with various mediums.

This  background was created with Smooch Inks.   I blended Lettuce, Green Apple, Frosted Aqua and some Gold Lame added afterwards using an acrylic block.       I stamped the Ellason Background with Bamboo Leaves Memento Dye ink over top.

I embossed Mandala 4 on dark green card stock with Gold.   The Funky Flower was stamped twice and embossed with Gold on smooth white card stock.   I painted the funky flower with gold smooch ink and then used the little applicator tip of Green Apple on the small circles of the flower.     I colored the center with green on the 2nd flower and then cut all the images out and layered as shown.   I popped up the 2nd flower layer and also the flower onto a strip left over from the smooch background.

I used dark green and soft yellow card stock for the layers and added some gold Starform border stickers for the  finishing touch along with some small green rhinestones.

A little early, but I hope you enjoy your St Patrick's Day.   Don't drink too much Green Beer !
Thanks for stopping by !
Shirley

Sitting Hummingbird

Hello !     Below is another card that I designed for Designs by Ryn .   We see a lot of Hummingbirds flying & enjoying a meal in our flower gardens, but rarely do we see one that is sitting !   Hummingbirds are so amazing !     I'm getting anxious for spring and gardening !

I used Ryn's CMB7 - Sitting Hummingbird to create this card.    My post on February 18th (Think Spring with Hummingbirds & Flowers) shows cards with one of her flying Hummingbird stamps.  

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that most of the time I like to create my own backgrounds so this is a different 'look'.     I love trying out different techniques, but at times I feel I should use some of my designer papers.   I have large stash of mini-pads and I don't 'allow' myself to buy anymore until I use up most of what I have here.   So that 'rule' should save me some budget to use for new stamps :)     

When I first started making cards, I was doing a lot of paper folding & embroidery on paper and always used border stickers.    I have a life-time supply of folding paper, stickers & embroidery  threads.  Fortunately they don't take up too much space as a passion for rubber stamping has taken over !   Part of this hobby is collecting for the hobby !    

I embossed the image with black on watercolour paper and coloured with Tombow markers & water.     I used Spellbinders Nestabilities S4-133 & S4-131 to cut out the image & pink mat.   The flower & leaves were created using Crealies Dies CL CS 11 & CL CF 17.

The papers I used for this card is from Basic Grey's 6x6 pad - 'Sweet Threads'.    The flowers & leaves were die cut from the same paper with the exception of the bright pink flower that was from a piece of left-over background with Smooch Inks.    

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend !
Shirley

Make it Square

Hello everyone !     I'm participating today in another Outlines Monday Challenge.     This week's theme is "Make it Square".    You can find all the details and great DT samples here at Outline's Blog.   Basically the card just needs to be square.  

I decided to get out my square Outline stamps to create my square card !    I'm a little frustrated this evening trying to get a decent photo of this one.  The colours are a rich brown and beige but it's looking washed out here.   I tried 3x and then just gave up and went with the best one.

I used the following Outline Stamps:   K233 Inspiration Background and E158 Star Square 3 Lg.

I stamped the background three times and embossed with gold.  Twice on brown DP paper and once on beige DP.  The beige paper is from the Basic Grey Capella collection and the brown is from BoBunny, it's actually a wood grain but there is no way you can see that on this photo !      The large square was embossed with gold once on each colour as well.  

I cut out 8 beige squares and 8 inner brown from backgrounds and adhered it all together onto a brown background as the photo shows.  The corner & centre squares are popped up for dimension.    I added a little Mica colour Interference Gold to the centre square circle.  I also used a little smooch ink on the stars around the large centre square.    Liquid pearls, rhinestones, a star charm and gold ribbon were added for the final touches. 

I think this will work well for a masculine card. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day !
Shirley  

Think Spring with Hummingbirds & Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying your weekend !  

I'm working this weekend on cards for Designs by Ryn .  This time with her beautiful Hummingbird stamps.     The two cards below were created using one of her flying Hummers.  I also have a sitting Hummer that will turn into a card soon.      I would like to mention again that Ryn's stamps are very high quality which leave a beautiful crisp image.    She hand draws the designs for all her stamps and is currently working on a Spring line which I'm looking forward to seeing !  

Working with Humming birds & flowers makes me think of Spring..... sigh... and looking forward to working in our gardens that attract a lot of Hummingbirds !  They are so much fun to watch !

I used Ryn's CMB8 Flying Hummingbird 1 and CMF15 Leafy Branch to create this card.

I stamped the Leafy Branch once and then off the edge on the RH corner with StazOn black ink on smooth white cardstock and coloured with Prisma Pencils.  Love them !   I'm sorry that I only have a set of 48, I wished I bought at least the 96 set.     They come in such a nice tin, I don't know how I'll store them if I add to my set individually.    

The bird was stamped & embossed with black onto watercolour paper and then I used my Tom Bow markers and water to colour.   I cut him (her?) out and popped him up over the branch.    The green matting is some cool textured paper that I got at Crop Circles.    I had a sentiment that I matted to add but it just looked cluttered to me, so it didn't make the 'cut' :) so I added a little purple ribbon to finish it off.

This next card was also created with the same stamps, just different colours & background and I was excited to try out my new Crealie dies to create the flowers.   These dies come from the Netherlands and are so cool.  Very easy to store, use & create with !   I learned about Crealies from Miranda's Blog (see my Blog list -  'Mir'acle Art Inspirations) who is on Crealies Design Team.   Last week I met up with my sister Marn who lives in the Netherlands down in Florida and she brought me a few sets... lucky me !   Crealies are also available from Chocolate Baroque in the UK.  

The background for this card was a left-over piece that I had from playing with Tom Bow markers, water & salt.   I stamped the Leafy branch over it with Old Paper Distress Ink.    The hummer was also stamped and embossed with black and coloured with Tom Bows & water.  

The Crealies used:   Creative Flowers CL CF 17 & Creative Shapes, CL CS 11. 

Well that's the 'Spring Fix' for today !    Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for dropping by !
Shirley

Hello ........

Goodmorning !   I hope everyone is well and enjoyed their Valentines Day !  

I'm entering this card into Impression Obsession's Challenge this week.  The theme is "Hey there, Hi, Hello..... you can find all the details and beautiful Design Team creations here at Impression Obsession's Blog.

This challenge was a good reason for me to get this Funky Bird on a Branch out and create a card with him !   I love this image, it's so cool !         

I used the following Impression Obsession stamps to create this card:   H10008 Bird on a Branch, CC018 Cover a Card - Greenery and A3579 "Hello".  

To create the background on the mat behind the image I used Cover a Card Greenery, stamped with Versa mark on white card stock and embossed with Copper powder.   I blended bundled sage & broken china distress inks over the embossing.

I stamped the Bird on a Branch image on watercolour paper with black StazOn ink and coloured with TomBow markers & water.    Once again the photo has lightened my colours, they are a little deeper and there is more shading that you can see here.  I also used a little blue distress ink around the white cardstock.

The image was matted with black cardstock & the copper "greenery" is adhered to black folded card stock.    I added some blue ribbon & rhinestones and it's done !

Thanks for dropping by & have a great day !
Shirley

Organic Fabric Flourish

Hello !

I finally got a clear stamp set out that my special Aunt (Tante) Saakje gave me when she was visiting last June.     Shame on me for taking so long to use it, as I love the images !     This set is by Inkadinkado - 99533 Organic Fabric Flourish..... interesting name.   There are lots of florals & paisleys designs -  I'll post a photo below so you can see what I'm talking about.   I created a card using some of the stamps.   Once again my photo is not showing the true colours.  I used a fuchsia mat, but it looks red, maybe because I placed pink card stock behind it. 

For this background I blended tattered rose & tumbled glass Distress Inks on white card stock and then used blue & purple glimmer mists.   I used the largest flourish in the set and stamped with Versa Mark ink, embossed with clear.  Over that, I stamped with Silver Brilliance Ink.   Hard to see in the photo.

The flower & little flourishes were stamped & embossed with silver on watercolour paper and painted with Tom bow markers:  555, 673 & 676 and water.    I stamped a 2nd flower and used a portion of it to 3D the image.   All the designs were cut out and arranged as the photo shows.   The sentiment is by Kaisercraft - Life sentiments (a nice set).    Navy ribbon & rhinestones are the final touches !

This is the Fabric Flourish stamp set:  

 

 
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day !
Shirley

Spring in February with a Begonia & Metallics

Hello !    I hope everyone is doing well.   We had a beautiful 'Spring in February' day today.. very unusual here in mid winter.    There is hardly any snow, it was 7 Celsius with lots of sunshine... I have a little spring fever !

I'm posting another card that I created for Designs by Ryn.    This one is a different colour combination and a little 'Spring-like' !    The colours in the photo are lighter than the actual card.      I used Begonia CM-F2 and again the Leafy Branch CM-F15 for this card.  The sentiment is by Impression Obsession - B3552 Just a Note. 
 

I created the background with Snickerdoodle, Banana Custard & Kiwi Smooch Inks.   The colour names can make you hungry !   I've been using Smooch Inks on backgrounds for a couple of years and with the exception of one colour, I'm still using the same little bottles.. they seem bottomless !   I stamped the Leafy Branch with ColourBox-Metale Xtra - Platinum ink onto the background.

I used Metallic Bronze EP for the Begonia which is a mixture of copper, silver & gold... love it !    I coloured the flower by blending Smooch Inks and a little highlight with Tombow markers.    I stamped the flower twice to pop up a 3D layer and added tiny copper beads with Glossy Accents in the center. 

I used Platinum metallic card stock with the branch dies by Marian Design - Creatables LR0150.   I had some wide copper ribbon in my stash and then layered it all on Platinum and Mango card stock.

To create Backgrounds with Smooch Inks:  Start with white card stock and cover with Versa Mark Ink.  Using a Colourbox blending tool & black moldable tip, start by adding the lightest colour first and blend out quickly.   Continue adding colours as desired.      It's fun to experiment with different colour combinations and the tip cleans up easily with baby wipes. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day !
Shirley

Peacock Fan by Chocolate Baroque

Good Evening !

I've been wanting to get my beautiful CB Peacock Fan (UA4SP0183) stamp set out again and finally had the chance this week.     This set has 13 stamps... awesome.    The Chocolate Baroque stamp company is located in England, but fortunately they have great service shipping to Canada !

I used the Peacock Fan & one of the Feathers from the set to create the card below.   The colours on the actual card are more vibrant, I find that mauve has blue tones in photographs. 

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I created the background by blending Grape Soda, Sugarberry & Gold Lame Smooch Inks.   I used a small acrylic block to add extra gold Smooch.    I stamped the feather onto the background with Colourbox Gold Ink.    

The beautiful quote is from Impression Obsession - C3541 'If you are grateful'.    I stamped the quote with Midnight Colourbox Pigment Ink.   I embossed it with clear and ended up having powder stick to the feathers on the background as I didn't realize the gold wasn't dry .....so the background feathers were embossed too.    The clear embossing on the gold pigment that was half dry has a crackled effect (hard to see in the photo).     Sometimes 'mistakes' are a way to learn something new !    

I embossed the Peacock Fan with gold on water colour paper and painted with Tom bow markers & water.   I popped the Fan up on the background and then added gold Starform border stickers for extra gold.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping at my Blog.
Shirley