Blue Winter Bird-Day!

Well, it's almost Christmas!  Hard to believe two days from now it will be here and almost over once again!  And, as always, another busy, bustling season where my good intentions were almost all they were....intentions!  Yet, isn't that always how it is?  The best laid plans have a tendency to somehow go awry.  Didn't get all my Christmas cards done on time, so here I am still doing them.  Course I always say that as long as they get there before January 1st, it's still counts.  Right?  Humor me people!  LOL

And, with that said, here's a birthday card, NOT a Christmas card!  Double LOL!  I have several friends and my dad who have birthdays very close to Christmas Day.  My dad's 76th birthday is today in fact!  This isn't his card, by the way.  I did get his gift off to him although it didn't arrive on time (go figure) and I did call him today!  So, it's not like I forgot! 

This card I made for a good friend using the sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches and theme of winter Non-holiday cards at Shopping Our Stash.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #177

Shopping Our Stash #82 - Non Holiday Winter Cards

SPIES:
Stamps:  Image - Digital clipart (Graphics Fairy); Sentiment - Digital sentiment.
Paper:  White and royal blue cardstock.  DP from stash ---- old DP.
Ink:  Computer ink.
Extras:  Bird feather; snowflake emboss folder, notebook border punch; rhinestone swirls, blue dots.

Falling Snowman

I just love this cute snowman stamp from Repeat Impressions!  So adorable!  And, of course I had to pair it with the equally cute sentiment.  I decided to use a bit of yellow here just for a bit of brightness and I love how it makes things pop.  I was trying to figure out a good way to show the snowman falling down the hill and so I went through some old sketch challenges and found this one at Retro Sketches.

Stampin' Royalty #154-- Christmas/Winter

SPIES:

Stamps:  Snowmen & Sentiment (Repeat Impressions).

Ink:  Azure (Staz On).

Paper:  Baby Blue, white, bright yellow and navy cardstock.  DP -Snowflake papers from stash.

Extras:  Snowflake emboss folder (Cuddlebug); corner rounder; small scallop border punch; plastic snowflake ornament; snowflake die (Taylored Expressions); yellow polka dot ribbon; snowflake brad; clear gems.

Blessings!

Bright Holidays

A bright neon holiday card for Moxie Fab's Keen On Neon Challenge again.  I've been working on this card for the past week and as true to form, getting it in at the last minute!  LOL!   So I guess I won't be working on that resolution to get things done early until 2013!

I made two sets of dots and then punched some out and popped them up.  The sentiment sticker is from part of my winning prize packet from being the random winner at Tuesday Trigger last week at Moxie Fab World!

 Moxie Keen On Neon Challenge

SPIES:
Stamps:  Circle background (Raisin Boat).
Paper:  White, bright blue and black cardstock.
Ink:  Jet Black (Staz On).  Chrome Orange, Yellowish Green, Holiday Blue & Fushia markers (Copics).
Extras:  Sentiment sticker (American Crafts). Silver snowflakes.

Golden Wishes

Good evening!  Another Sunday evening, another Patriots football game, only this one wasn't going so well until now.  I had to watch it though, living in the South, I don't get all my Patriots games on TV so when I do, I HAVE to watch!  LOL

I've been MIA from my blog for the past week.  As you will see in an earlier post a few days ago, I now am the proud owner of an Etsy shop!  YEA!  <happy dance>  It's been 9 months in the making!  Talk about hard labor!  LOL!

And, if that weren't enough, I've been trying to get organized for Christmas and getting packages ready to mail and finally got the entire house decorated, which only took 2 weeks!  Yet, still, this Christmas holiday 100% better than last year --- one year ago on Dec 15th, I had surgery and spent the holiday time on LOTS of pain medication!  So can't say I really remember it alot!  LOL

So, some simple cards tonight to get me back in the groove and a perfect challenge to help me out --- the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger:

Moxie Fab World - Tuesday Trigger

SPIES:
Stamps:  Trees (Inkadinkadoo).
Paper:  white cardstock.
Ink:  Gold Metallic ink.
Extras:  Gold bow, blue gem stickies; pearl gems.

Blessings!  Hug your kids!

White Gold Sparkle

Another card for Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.  Had to use my ornament Spellbinders again.  The  embossed DP paper from The Paper Company was perfect for them.  I cut them out, cut out some solid gold mirror look tops, added some gold gems and a metallic gold sentiment for an elegant CAS card.

Moxie Fab - Tuesday Trigger

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment - Stampendous.
Paper:  White cardstock. Gold mirror DP.  DP-Pearl Embossed Daisy and Gold embossed paisley (I think) from The Paper Co.
Ink:  Gold Metallic Ink.
Extras:  Gold string.  Yellow gold gems.

Soul Stampin' Designs-Etsy Style!

Introducing:  My new business --

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SoulStampinDesigns

Finally!  The baby is here!  And by baby, I mean my business and Etsy shop -- Soul Stampin' Designs!  Eight items listed so far but more to come shortly!  I just had to take a break and make an announcement.  It's been a long nine months since I first embarked upon having my own craft business/online shop.  Now, with the opening of my Etsy shop today --- it's a reality!  Woohoo!

I'm very excited!  I've dreamed about it since I was a teenager taking art lessons from my grandmother's neighbor.  Every Saturday my cousins, my friend and I would spend a couple of hours in our art teacher's little backyard art studio learning, painting and chatting.  Getting to do what I love all day long and hopefully now getting paid for it too!  Definitely a dream come true! 

What am I selling?  Well, cards of course!  And, my own photos with digital stamped phrases or quotes  Many of my digital phrases are compliments of Create with TLC with her permission.

The photoblocks are all my own photos, some digitally enhanced and with added digital sentiments or phraces.  The blocks are mostly from re-purposed wood (got to be green!) that are hand sanded, painted black or white or stained.


Through the years, my art  interests have changed here and there.  First was the oil and acrylic painting.  Then, photography.  Later, scrapbooking.  Now, it has been more papercrafts with cards and photography again.  I also plan to at some point to get back to my origin of painting on canvas, only probably this time it will have more of an abstract flare coupled with mixed media on occasion.

So, I'm very excited and I hope my blog visitors will go to my Etsy shop and browse and even purchase some of my work.   And now you know why I haven't had many posts on here over the last 10 days, I've been working hard at trying to get the beginnings of an inventory finalized for my shop opening.  So, now hopefully, I can get back to some cardmaking as well!

Blessings & Happy Holidays!

Playing In Paradise #96 - Winter Birds

TGIF Everyone!  Normally, everyday is like a Friday for me, since I only have to go downstairs to my "office" and my "work" is something I love, but this has been a long kind of stressful week for me with refinancing going on for our house (we close in a couple days -- YEA!) and Christmas shopping (all online so not as much hassle, but still a little time consuming).

However, I do have something even more exciting to add --- this week I am the Guest Designer for the Playing in Paradise challenge over at Scrapbooker's Paradise!  I won Challenge #94.  You can see the card I won with here.  Not only did I win a crafty prize, I get to be a part of the team for this week's challenge.  So much fun!  I definitely feel like Christmas has come early for me!

So this week's Playing in Paradise theme is Winter Birds.   An easy challenge, I thought, only I discovered I have very few bird stamps and at first I was a little stumped at what to do.  They would have been ok, but I also wanted to use my fir tree branch stamps I received in my prize package from another Scrapbooker's Paradise designer, Jessi Fogan.  So, what to do?   I dug out an old painting stencil, a cardinal, that I have had for years. 

 

And this is what I created:

I'm very happy with it too!  The bird came out really beautifully.  I taped the plastic stencil down on watercolor paper.  Then, I covered his beak before doing a kind of sponge painting on him with Fire Brick distress ink mixed with water.  On top of that, I sprayed some Postbox Red Dylusions paint and topped that off with some homemade Red Spice Glimmer Mist.  For the beak I added a bit of straw distress ink.  I then colored the mid scection of his beak black with a sponge pencil and black pigment ink and a black Copics marker.  You can't see it very well in the photo, but I added a black gem for his eye too.

The pine needles and pine cones are Inkadinkadoo stamps (part of my prize pack from Jessi Fogan).  I love these!  I stamped them and cut them out for more depth.  I attempted to add a little gold glitter to the pine cones for a little glimmer.  I must invest in one of those glitter pens!  LOL  The birdhouse in the background is a Sizzix die and I used patterned paper from Anna Griffin.  I used the same paper for the sentiment tag as well, tying off the tag with thin kraft string.  Everything is adhered to the cream background that is embossed with a Spellbinders' M-Bossabilities folder.

I may have gotten off with a slow start with this one, but I had a lot of fun putting it together and seeing it all fall into place.  I want to thank Pam and all the other designers at Scrapbooker's Paradise for having me guest design.  So much fun!  I hope I get to do it again sometime in the future!

Have a great weekend and I hope you give this challenge a try and peak in at Scrapbooker's Paradise and check out all the other designer's cards!

Blessings!

Snow Angel Wings

Good evening!  Haven't had a lot of time to craft the past two days as we are finalizing the refinancing of our house and the Hubs and I have been on the phone more than not!  Yet, so glad it is almost done with the closing later this week.  Then we can breathe a little easier and have a little more cash in our pockets just in time to Christmas shop!

I have several other cards I'm working on but wanted to get this one posted for The Play Date Cafe.  I purchased the Tim Holtz wing die from Sizzix a few months back and just never have gotten around to using it until tonight.  I love how they turned out on this card.  I'm not totally thrilled with the sentiment portion of the card but I didn't want anything really to take away from the wings and damask ornament.

Supplies:

SPIES:

Stamps:  Damask ornamental stamp (Stampendous).  Sentiment (Stampendous).

Paper:  White and black cardstock.  Red Carpet glitter paper (Coredinations).  DP on snowflakes (Silver Dot from The Paper Co.)

Ink:  Verasamark and black and maroon emboss powder.

Extras:  Snowflake dies (Taylored Expressions); snowflake emboss folder (Cuttlebug).  White tulle.  White and maroon gems.

Blessings!

Good Job Ben!

Happy Monday!  I just had to add a brag post here.  My youngest son, Ben, had his first article as a sports writer at The Daily Tarheel published yesterday!  I'm so very proud of him!  He is a sophomore at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, double majoring in sports journalism and sports administration.  You can see read his article by clicking the link below: 

And I had to include a shout out to the Lady Tarheels Soccer Team who became the 2012 National Champs last night!  This makes their 21st National Title!  There have been 30 National Titles overall played, showing UNC a dominate force in that sport!  The UNC Women's Soccer Team is also the most acclaimed women's sports team of all time in ANY collegiate sport!  Congrats Lady HEELS!  Great job!

UNC 2012 Women's Soccer Team--

2012 National Champs!

Blessings!

Neutral Santa

A very busy Sunday today working on more crafts and photos.  And as I post, watching the UNC Tarheel women's soccer team play in the NCAA Championship Soccer Game against Penn State.  Currently with just 14 minutes to go, UNC is up 4 goals to 1!  Love my Carolina Blues!

Now, to just as important business --- my card!  LOL!  I used another one of my old world Santa stamps from Stamper's Anonymous to make a shabby vintage old world Christmas card for The Shabby Tea Room challenge and Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger.  My inspiration came from the neutral theme and those gorgeous lacey frames from the Moxie Fab inspiration photo.  I've had these lacy frames for YEARS and I think I've used maybe one of them.  They came in a set of probably 4 or 5.  Perfect!

I don't remember what my DP paper is and you can barely see it underneath the damask embossing but it's there.  I used the tea dye distress ink to ink the edges of the card and of the scallop die.   I wanted to keep this simple with just a few elegant embellishments.  I had this Santa brad forever too!  The white berries are from a sprig I used in some wine bottles sprayed white and rolled in fake snow.  I have to rally those bottles out for Christmas decor yet.

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

The Shabby Tea Room #142- Neutrals

SPIES:

Stamps:  Santa postcard stamp(Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous).

Paper:  DP from stash.  Cream cardstock.

Ink:  Vintage sepia (Versamark).  Tea Dye distress ink (Ranger Ink).

Extras:  Lace frame; Damask emboss folder (Cuttlebug); scallop oval die (Spellbinders); tan prima flowers; cream silk flower; santa brad; white berries.

Blessings!

Crafty Goodies!

 Christmas came before December for me!  I have been wanting to post this since Friday afternoon!  My goodies that I won from OneCraftyMama, Jessi, came in the mail.  Soooo excited!  I love "good" mail and I especially love craft goodies in the mail!






So, as you can see, there are LOTS of goodies!  I have had so much fun just perusing through all of it.  I did break out the crepe paper and use it last night. It's like a kid in a candy store, I have to pace myself!

There is so much in here --- crepe paper --three different sets of stamps -- a pad of Graphic 45 paper -- lots of loose Christmas paper-- a journal -- sticker label sheets-- an emboss folder---

  

and some amazing crocheted Nesties, I believe are handmade by Jessi herself!

And, last but not least, I also received a gorgeous card made by Jessi!

Handmade by Jessi Fogan

So now I must get in high gear and craft away and I even have more goodies on the way after being selected the winner this week a Scrapbooker's Paradise-Playing in Paradise Challenge!  As I mentioned on Friday on Facebook, blessings truly are neverending!

Blessings!     

Joyeux Noel

Happy Saturday and Happy December!  Boy has this year flown by, but I must admit I'm really glad it's almost over.  2012 proved not to be such a great year physically for me.  It did bring a special person back into our lives, so I am very grateful for that!  And, I'm already beginning my 2013 resolutions --- get back into shape, open my shop (finally!), taking weekly day trip dates with the Hubs.  One of them will be happening very, very soon.  Check back here soon to see!

Until that time, the Christmas crafting continues!  For now, it's just cards, but I am hoping within another week to add some 3D projects to my posts.  This card I'm using to play in the challenge at The Paper Girls Challenge for the first time.  I recently purchased some new Christmas stamps and this gorgeous Eiffel Tower stamp is one of them.  I did a monochromatic colored card to make a soft, shabby chic kind of vintage style.

Up close and personal you can tell those pink dots are holly berries.  I know it may look a little funky farther away but it does add a little bling.

Challenge #20-Christmas or Winter Theme

SPIES:

SPIES:
Stamps:  Image(Stampendous).
Paper:  Cream and light pink cardstock.  DP - Toile (Anna Griffin).
Ink:  Angel Pink (Memento).  Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels) -- I forgot this in the photo.  Flamingo liquid pearls (Ranger Ink).
Extras:  photo corner die (Sizzix); swirl die (My Favorite Things); pink heart gem; pink ribbon.

Blessings!

Have a NEON Christmas

A Neon card for the Neon holiday card challenge at Moxie Fab World and using the sketch at Retrosketches.  I decided to use some crepe paper I received in my prize pack from Jessi Fogan in Nova Scotia, Canada and owner of OneCraftyMama. Stop over and see her beautiful work!  I have to give her a shout out for helping with my supply for this card!  It's so bright and colorful!  I realize now I didn't add any other embellishments other than the flower brad.  It seems that I don't have a lot of bright orange or bright yellow brads, gems, etc.  Perhaps a trip to Michaels or such is in order this weekend!

Moxie Fab World - Keen on Neon Challenge


Supplies:

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment: Stampendous.

Paper:  White cardstock.  Crepe paper.

Ink:  Versamark and blue twinkle emboss powder.

Extras:  Neon ribbon, Neon pink flower.

Oh, and the soccer game continues!  Score 0-0 with just 12 minutes left in the game.  May be going into overtime!