Majestic Beauty

     "My treasures do not clink together or glitter, They gleam in the sun and neigh in the night" a gypsy verse that fits this image.

     This is my newest horse image, a stamp from Serendipity Stamps, and its just beautiful. As I colored this image I was thinking of my next trip to the desert to ride with my daughter in a few months.  Hence the lovely Saguaro cactus in the background.  I toyed with several sentiments to place on the front but none of them did justice to this lovely image.
     The image was stamped on Gina K Luxury CS and colored with my Prismacolor pencils.  The background was stamped on some more Gina K Luxury CS, and I used my Copics to color it.  I then tore a piece of paper and laid it in various positions on the background, and with a dauber, gently tapped the color Bliss Blue by Stampin Up to create some clouds.  Then I edged the two rectangular pieces, as well as the image, with my Gold Leafing Pen.
     Stampin Sisters In Christ challenged us to make a card this week that depicts our style.  I don't know about anyone else but my style changes every time I sit down to create a card.  This does however show my love of horses and gives you a feel for who I am.

Thanks for stopping by,

Materials:  Copic Markers, Prismacolor Pencils, Odorless Paint Thinner, Gold Leaf Pen, Spellbinders Die, Gina K Luxury CS,  Bliss Blue SU CS, Serendipity Stamp, Local King Rubber Stamp

Challenges:  Stampin Sisters in Christ  Challenge 124, Dream Valley  #24Animals Challenge

A Little Box of Goodies

     With Valentines day approaching I wanted to make something besides a card for some friends.  This little box seemed just perfect for what I needed.....While I could have made it larger and decorated it more I opted for one that is only 3 inches by 3 inches.  Six miniature Kit Kats fit in it just perfectly.  I like it so much I will probably make one for my son and daughter as well. For this one I dug out a stamp from a set I have had a few years and not used for some time.  In spite of it being for Valentines day I used no red, just wasn't in a red mood.  The basic measurements for cutting are below.

Thanks for stopping by,

Cut CS for box that pulls out 4 7/8 x 4 7/8 and score at the one inch line on each side.
Wrap for the box is 8 1/2 inches by 3 inches and scored at 1, 4, 5 and 8
Card topper is 6 x 3 and scored at 3 and 1 1/2 - then cut a 3 x 3 piece to stamp and adhere to this.
These are the measurements for the basic pieces, decorating the sides, card and box are up to you.  This would look good made with patterned paper and save some cutting and glueing.

Materials:  Nestabilities, MS punch, pearls, brads, CS, Sentiment (I think is Fiskar)

Challenges:  CES Challenge #69, Card Makin Mamas, Something Old 

Flowers of Praise

     While there are many inspirational blogs to visit, I also love to peruse the gallery at Splitcoaststampers.  There is so much amazing talent from all over the world all within a click.  There are several galleries there that I check on a regular basis, one contains the 'fabulous' creations of Pat Smethers........not only does she create drop dead gorgeous, pick your jaw up off the counter top cards, she is filled with a love for the Lord that shines throughout so many of her creations.  She is a truly inspirational lady!! Her flowers and the layers of love she puts in each card really inspire me.  So many of her pieces include beautiful hand made flowers and with a recent tutorial she had I just knew I needed to sit and play......God blessed her with a real talent and I am blessed she shares it so freely at SCS.  Needless to say I had so much fun making these they are now covering my work space and I need to make some more cards to go with them.  

 Thanks for visiting,

Materials used:  Bo Bunny CS, Pearls, CL Die, MS punches, Stampabilities sentiment, CB Embossing Folder


Challenges:  Word Art Wednesday Challenge

Western Birthday for DD

    Its my DD birthday - she is a young adult, and I am blessed to be her mother, she brings us great joy.  One of our favorite things to do together is horseback ride so it is no surprise I made her a western themed card.  This is a lovely stamp from Coronado Island Stamps, they offer many lovely and detailed animal designs and have several wonderful horse stamps.  I have stamped them twice and used a die to cut them out and then layered them over each other, below them is a scenic stamp from Local King Rubber Stamps that I purchased last year.  In the picture you cannot see that I used Versamark and stamped the horses all over the background paper....in person it looks like a sky of horses running behind the ones highlighted. Recently reorganized my stamp room and set up my sewing machine, so I stitched around the outside of the layers.  This is something I hope to do on more cards.  Inside I stamped the same scenic stamp (after stamping it off once) and the sentiment above is Happy Birthday Cowgirl - of course!  Its always fun to make cards for her or my son as they are some of my biggest fans!

Thanks for looking,

Materials:  Coronado Island Stamps, Local King Rubber Stamps, Versamark, Versafine, CS, Sewing Machine, Dies

WINTER challenge...

     It has been a busy, crazy week!  When we moved to Georgia last summer after 17 years in Missouri, it was a little overwhelming to say the least.  With so much going on, the bedroom and living areas are where I concentrated my efforts first....lots of other 'stuff ' got put in closets - after all, "out of sight is out of mind".  Lots of my stamp stuff got shoved into the craft room closet and other things laid around as I worked on Christmas cards and gifts.  In the back of my mind I knew that January would be the perfect time to regroup and start the organization process - being a little selfish I decided to start in my stamp room first.  I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week building a cabinet to hold my stamp storage containers, they are an unusual size and required a hand crafted cabinet. (I have a picture posted below - I'm pretty pleased with my work.)  Then I organized the closet and rearranged my counter top area.  There is still more to do but I just can't be in this room without doing a little stamping :)
 

 Today's card is with the new stamp set I recently ordered from Our Daily Bread Designs called Never Give Up and includes a fabulous Grunge Cross.  This particular stamp has a die you can purchase to cut out the lovely cross for a very nice layered effect.  I stamped white paper with the Grunge Cross Background and layered it over some red that is spritzed with gold glimmer mist and edged with my gold leafing pen.  I layered the Grunge Cross with three papers and edged also edged the outside black paper with the gold leafing pen.  The challenge this week was to use the word "WINTER" and take three of the letters and use a technique or tool to create your card.  My goal was to use all the letters - a challenge indeed.  Its a stretch but I did it.  White paper and card, Ink, New stamp, Triangle corners, Edged with gold leaf pen, Red paper and cross!!  I said it was a stretch!!  

Supplies:  Our Daily Bread Design Stamp and Die, Glimmer Mist, Copic Red marker, Gold Leafing Pen.  


Challenges:  Our Daily Bread Design SLC92

Thanks for stopping by - have a great day!

Thinking of You.....

     There are a lot of changes when you make a move to a new State....giving up visiting your favorite stamp stores is one of those changes.  What a thrill when through Splitcoaststampers I learned from Jenny Gropp about a store not far from my new home.  I made my second visit there today and spent over an hour wandering and looking.  This card was made using a new stamp I purchased by Outlines Rubber Stamp Company.  Jenny does tutorials for the Outlines newsletter as well as working at the store and I was able to see several ways to use this stamp, but more important I learned about a wonderful dimensional silicone to pop the petals of the flower up.  Hopefully in the second picture below you can see how nicely this gives dimension to my flower.
     What fun it was playing with this stamp and I must warn you that I will probably do a few more cards to post as I keep thinking of new things to do with it.  This card will be entered in the Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge this where they are looking for cards that are "Thinking of You" themed......how convenient that I needed to make a card for that very purpose.

Thanks for stopping by:

Materials used:  Bo Bunny Sunflower Double Dot CS, Mango Frost CDWV CS, Metallic CS, Rhinestones, Endless Creations Sentiment, Outlines Rubber Stamp Striped Petals Med and Large,  Copics, Decoupage Glue, Spellbinders Floral Doily Motif Die, Sparkle Shimmer Mist, CL Die, Gold Leafing Pen.  

Challenges:  Stampin Sisters In Christ  - Challenge #121.  Dream Valley Anything Goes 23, Hooked on Crafts Try Something New. 

Red for Love

     Well it is the first week of the New Year - I am happy to say I do not make resolutions....I am one of those 'day at a time' people.  This doesn't mean I don't have goals I want to achieve, but each day brings new things and challenges and I like to try to be flexible.  LOL, because my family might not think I'm as flexible as I would like to believe.  

     I found this fun glitter foam at Michael's and just had to buy it...my idea was to use a die with it and see how it would layer up for a Valentines card.  By my standards getting my Valentines cards done now is 'very' early.  I usually have a bunch of ideas in my head and wait until the last minute to see if they will work. This is a pretty simple card, and the picture really doesn't do it justice.  The foam came out great when I cut it - no white around the edges showing because it is red all the way through.  Then I gold embossed a dollar stamp I had (it was a circle and that was the best fit) and used an old Stampin' Up sentiment for the bottom that I also gold embossed.  The outer layer of red was run through my GC with a circle die to create a framed look.  I used my gold leafing pen to edge the inner circle and the outer edges of the red layer.  

     It is a simple but very pretty card....the inside says "I will love you till the day after forever..." with a red rose stamped off in red over it.  I think my DH will like it  

     Just a note that I used my new watermark created by Dina Kowal - I had wanted something with horeses (imagine that!) I follow her and know what a fabulous artist she is so when I saw she created watermarks I contacted her.  I think its pretty cool!

  

 

Materials:  CS, Superfine Gold Embossing Powder, Stampin Up - Love, Hampton Art Stamp, Spellbinders Dies, Glitter Craft Foam, Computer generated sentiment inside. 

Challenges: Joans Gardens (JG512) Valentines and embossing, Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes